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       CELEBRATIONS

Photo by Bob Gentry ©2001 Stanyan Entertainment

A Thought for Today

We lead small lives but they are made larger by what we do for one another.

 

Rather than confound a new love with confetti or take one unaware by putting on the kind of mask that puts one off, open up. Let go. The worst you'll come away with is a tin horn blaring in your ear, a firecracker burn. Or someone's hastily scribbled address wadded in your pocket.

                               - from "Celebrations of the Heart", 1975

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notable birthdays Hans Christian Andersen o Dana Carvey o Casanova o Charlemagne o Buddy Ebsen o Max Ernst o Serge Gainsbourg o Rita Gam o Marvin Gaye o Alec Guinness o Emmylou Harris o Linda Hunt o Ron "Horshack" Palillo o David Hyde Pierce o Camile Paglia o Leon Russell o Debralee Scott o Don Sutton o Jack Webb o Emile Zola
Rod's random thoughts Love makes the bashful beautiful and gives the awkward grace.

Only a fool enters a room unwanted.

When I'm on a horse, I'm on a horse.

THE OUTER REACHES OF THE HEART

 The outer reaches of the heart
are never fully tracked
but I have seen the limits
of my own heart
in the distance
and I now know its boundaries
to be unlimited.
I had begun to feel
that sorrows fought & conquered
could not touch or threaten me again,
but this new grief is wider
than the sleep of reason.
I have moved through solitaire
to some new unnamed place
                               beyond alone
and I am standing here without a map.
I wish that I had not gone
swimming in the distance
without an island or a raft
as harbor or safe floating place.

The afterwish
is always harder to make so
than the dream we call a starting place.
Safety always lies out there.

How to get from here to there,   
                                   the question.
The answer, wait for transportation.

                                - from "The Sound of Solitude", 1983
© 1970, 1975, 1983, 1986, 2001 by Stanyan Music Group & Rod McKuen. All Rights Reserved
Birthday research by Wade Alexander o Poetry from the collection of Jay Hagan o Coordinated by Melinda Smith
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