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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Tuesday, November 15, 2022

This dumb duck would take off

 

November 15, 2012  (I was 68)

 

This dumb duck would take off

fly in a circle then splash down in the same place

swim in and out of the reeds

duck his head preen the plumes and take off

for another lap  He seems to have forgotten

what other ducks know when they take flight

to wit which way to go  He missed the flock

north in the spring fall in the south

In his tightening orbits over the pond

the dumb duck quacks after every take off

apparently surprised he knows how to fly

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