Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

words flowed like the Shenandoah
surely, with confidence
and I wrote them from my tent
in the Skyline Drive in Virginia
the campground was called Matthew's Arm
and I would name my first son Matthew

"saw a black bear" it said in my journal
"watched the sun set and rise", I documented
those moments never realizing an old man
might read them one day when he was bored,
cleaning out closets to unburden the task
for his children later throwing away all his shit

but I kept keeping this little book
I think because, words conceived are life conceived
spontaneous as they come in real time
before the fucking internet, before the cellular phone
before GPS, when I fell in love with maps
and brand new ways of thinking

and writing down what I was seeing
with eyes and mind

I've been journaling the minutiae of my life since high school - really should toss all the diaries and notebooks, and delete the Word docs - but something always stays my hand - these snapshots from my past won't mean to her what they do to me - but they're my impromptu autobiography - and so I let them live for another day........

Awww so sweet are the memories
Of a time when all seems so real and natural
No virtual reality in paper and ink
The smell of the library and coffee
The smell of rain comes through the typewriter
Of long ago
Clack
Click whirring sound
Begin a new
I hear this song building in my throat
My lungs are heavy
I crave tobacco
The ashtray
A relic from younger times
When breath was an option
Convinced that we don’t die
Testing 1 2 3 4.. still here

Have boxes of journals in a box where I keep my bills

Wish they could pay the dues-

Coming across the same thing lately. Toss, or keep? Probably toss. It inevitably gets down to that anyway..

I think because, words conceived are life conceived
spontaneous as they come in real time

My brain is a Magic Eight Ball™
memories float up out of the depths
I have read that we never forget anything. Any thought, sight, taste, smell act, emotion, it is all in there, in that dark sea within us. Not sure what this has to do with your poem, some kind of kneejerk reply from this barely conscious writer.

the poem is brilliant, thank you.

I thought this bit was curious, thinking about the internet and grammar checkers.

thanx for the the great comments colleagues...always a pleasure...

Enjoyed this opening of your journal and what it means now