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.


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Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Nowadays I sit to write

 

May 11, 1998  (I was 53)

 

Nowadays I sit to write

with whatever purpose for initial motivation

knowing that it is only a game

to get me in proximity to paper

with a pen in hand

and that whatever will be written

has little to do with any thought

preceding the writing

It is a comfortable talent

something akin to navigation

by the seat of the pants

an aptly cynical metaphor

for an activity whose source

is conventionally considered to be

anchored in intellect

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