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!

Wednesday, April 6, 2022

Instructions for the Greenhouse

 

April 6, 1975  (I was 30)

 

Instructions for the Greenhouse

If you build the greenhouse out of found lumber

and 4 mil plastic sheeting

it will cost practically

and be the size of your sunny spot

When it rains hard first the meekly angled roof

supported by nylon guy lines

will sag and break the one-by-four support

Repair it with inexpensive metal braces

and cut door shaped flaps in the ceiling

low spots after you tighten the nylon

These will allow the rain to drain

through your tanbark floor without damage

after you have moved your plants

and seedlings out of the way

In clement weather the doors can be closed

with plastic tape hasps easily reopened when

the next rain becomes the biennial hail storm

and slush clogs the drain holes

Be there to poke your fingers through

and the ice water will pour your sleeves

with a few more wider windows cut

By this time you will have plants to save

and it will be invigorating

The survival of the continuing green world

will be necessary 

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