I don’t write in a journal everyday, but I have accumulated many entries over the past 50+ years beginning in 1966. Some items evolved into longer works. Among the leftovers little pieces survived. I thought a collection of these with a piece culled from the same date in a past year would make an interesting yearbook. The consistencies and inconsistencies of mind, skipping back and forth across time, provide varied perspectives. It is difficult to remember the context of the past we’ve lived; we also make suppositions about times that predate ourselves.

The few alterations from original drafts were to improve clarity. The worst of my work is not included. There remains enough mediocrity and immaturity to make me feel humble and you feel smart. There are also moments of accidental insight and incidental humor.

Author Stephen Crane referred to his little pieces as pills…apparently they were small and somewhat hard to swallow, but good for you.


Comments Welcome!

Tuesday, March 22, 2022

The actual if significant

 

From this week in 2021  (I was 76)

 

The actual if significant

requires years becoming real

Bourbon in the burnt barrel

takes on the oak aging

to mature into complexity it lacks

as first siphoned into actual alcohol

The book read off the press is a book

but not a classic until reread

by generations of readers to follow

The significance of that first big fish

story is not a tale until retold long

after fish and fisherman are gone

All the nights skating on the outdoor rink

concentrate into a single night

that will last all winter long

Beyond the disillusionment of the actual

we sip distilled richness of the spirit

from an old container of the reality

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