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, August 3, 2022

In drizzling wind

 

from this week in August, 2008 (I was 63)

 

In drizzling wind

we stood to warm over steam vents

overlooking the deep drop of Kilauea crater

then hiked the rim trail in low clouds

weaving mist through gradual descent

to find no one else at Thurston lava tube

We explored the old hole in new wonder

birthed by the perfect solitude

shared a silent toke in sacramental homage

A fumarole of cylindrical symmetry

coiled round hairy roots threaded through the ceiling

Water drops anointed us down the dim path

and deeper for moments beyond any light

subdued in the dark recognition

before we backtracked

to emerge among bright ferns

flowers and the canopy of ohia trees

which kept the percussive rain from us

Such are impromptu gifts of circumstance

and reminders of our un-divinable situation

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