6th & 7th November, 2004
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McKuen appearance details!
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Rod 4/16/04 Photo by Billy Iz
A Thought for Today
We may have come a long way, but we will
always have a longer way to go.
Am off to the first run through of Saturday’s show but before leaving here
are a few poems from The Sea Around Me.
FROM the¨BOOKS
Three Poems from The Sea Around Me.
MIDDLE NIGHT CONFUSION
As the sun has just now
bent down into the ocean,
bend down to me.
Rising up
I promise you’ll not frown.
As the stars
begin appearing
move in closer
begin to pull me
to you
as I pull you down.
As we roll sideways
see the path of moonlight
stretching on the water
wide enough to walk on
with an army
if one of us was God.
God is here somewhere
between us.
I can touch and feel Him
lying up against
your back,
one arm extended
through the roof
exchanging bulbs
in burnt-out stars.
But wait
there is no beach at all.
No moonlight on the water
no waves sing out to me.
Can this be so,
that in these hills
away from everything
I knew before,
the only singing
my ears
hear
is your sighs,
heavy, full of thunder?
One more time
and one more time again.
You are my ocean
and my stars,
my God and all his heaven.
And life for me begins.
Beach-bar lingo
being all the same
we were left to make
whole conversations
with our eyes.
Add to this
that glances must be tentative
for none should know our business
but ourselves.
I wonder then
that we met at all.
Perhaps the language
of the desperate
is the strongest one yet made.
How else could you explain
an understanding without words?
A moving out the door
with no pre-arrangement?
MEETING
I admit that I am shy.
More so with those faces
and those forms
that I start to love
with but one look only.
Back in the room
we had no liquor
and no radio
no aphrodisiac but need.
Oh, I needed you. I did, I do.
your bushy head
and your round eyes,
your thighs
to wrap myself around,
your intermittent smile
and stare.
Your caring for me
then and now.
I pushed a pillow
soft beneath your head
and murmured love
from the beginning.
I knew. Don’t ask me how.
That we were starting
what could not be finished
in our lifetimes.
Here we are
and those tomorrows
left or owed to me,
borrowed and as yet
unbought for you
will not be enough.
We should move
toward the heavens
or at least above the earth
somewhere
for always.
Though I know
need is not enough
perhaps this time
simple wanting
will transcend all this
and everything.
- From "The Sea Around Me, " 1976, 1977
AND FINALLY
Sleep warm and have a happy and healthy weekend.
RM 11/5/2004 6:46 PM PST
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ROD McKUEN
CONCERTS
ROD
McKUEN APPEARANCES
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Saturday 6 November
Ray Conniff o
Brad Davis o
Sally Field o
Glenn Frey o
Juanita Hall o
Ethan Hawke o
Walter Perry Johnson o
James Jones o
Gus Kahn o
Lance Kerwin o
Frances Lederer o
James Naismith o
Mike Nichols o
Ignace Jan Paderewski o
Kelly Rutherford o
Jean Shrimpton o
Maria Shriver o
John Philip Sousa o
Simon Wiesenthal
Sunday
7 November
William Alwyn o
Melissa Bell o
Joe Bushkin o
Albert Camus o
Madame Curie o
Balfour Gardiner o
Billy Graham o Al
Hirt o
Dean Jagger o
Dame Gwyneth Jones o
Keith Lockhart o
Jason and Jeremy London o
Joni Mitchell o
Barry Newman o
Dana Plato o
Johnny Rivers o
Joan Sutherland o
Leon Trotsky |
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Ambition is the talent that takes us to the top the fastest.
Love is still the easy way through life.
It’s important to have allies but don’t
loose yourself completely in WE.
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ONE SEA IS NOT LIKE ANY OTHER
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I am always
being pulled by love
not only bed and bodies
but a city here,
a red sail there.
A beach town
or some seaport city
always opens up her arms
in welcome to me.
I am now
the product of those
many oceans
the sea is all I know
for sure
but I know it well.
If the sea
did not make me
by hand
it rubbed me, rolled me
out of darkness
into light.
For I have seen
my past and future
on the white caps
dancing out beyond
a thousand shorelines.
I have recognized
my face
swimming in the shallows,
my body blundering
through the gray-white foam.
My life has sailed
so far out past the tide
it’s now beyond
my own far-reaching reach.
The sea makes something
out of nothing every day,
by the running in
and running back
of the tide alone.
And with the aid
of but a little sand
it polishes and hones
the bottom of the world
twice daily.
One ocean for me
is not like any other
except to say
that each has given comfort
when I need it,
love when there was none
forthcoming
from another quarter,
peace if I stayed long enough
to wait for it or seek it out.
- From "The Sea Around Me." 1975, 1976 |
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