The Mundo of the Mundane : from Journals, 1959-1984

These poems are part of a larger whole, gleaned from some 25 years of journal recordings. In the first three or four years of "serious" writing, I mostly wrote little hokku-like poems on little scrap pieces of paper I kept in my pockets and later recorded in my journals--desert breaths, sighs, groans with sexual-geographical overtones--jotted down while teaching school on a ranch in Arizona, hitch-hiking all over the Southwest, and trekking deep into the wilderness. Then, the first longer poems were actually juxtapositions of these little pieces--montages, compositions, jazz riffs and solos. It is important to note that none of these poems were composed in any rational, deliberate manner--never having attempted write a "conventional" poem with conventional rhyme, meter, etc. The things I write down are the spontaneous recordings of images, events, and ideas that make up the substance of daily experience, hence the title of this book. "...full of vivid imagery and imaginative language" (Arlene Rivera, Flume Press) "The worlds you create unravel with great beauty!" (Nancy Goldfarb, 2002 Cleveland State University Poetry Center Prize.) "...astounding and gorgeous.... I like the earth-connected imagery...the sense of time and place" (Diane Frank, Blue Light Press) "I like the contemplative tone, the abundance of natural imagery... (Tom C. Hunley, Steel Toe Books) "We enjoyed the details...and the rambling, easy style...which fits the subject matter well" (Elise M. McHugh, West End Press)