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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Monday, May 16, 2022

The false pride of one who buys a house

 

from this week in May 2015 (I was 70)

 

The false pride of one who buys a house

after familial generations lived in huts

to live now among the estates others were born to

It is a failure to recognize the nature of humility and station

Wild plants grow only as tall as the windbreak

and as strong as the seed from which they sprout

Often the migrant in flight from one desperation

must learn to survive in another unaware

of new masters who never show themselves

behind the brand names they’ve invented

We are ever left appreciating pebbles among the gems

seeing through a magnifying glass while hearing

of the wonders found by those with telescopes

It’s the pretense of accomplishment by one

among those who own the accomplishments of many

 

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