FLIGHT FROM THE
PAST
19 November, 1998 Click
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Rod in action at The Riverton Rendezvous, July 2001.
Photograph courtesy Jay Hagan.
A Thought for Today
A bad temper finds the unemployment line
soon enough.
Rod is on the road for a
couple of weeks and will be back with you at the beginning of September.
HOTEL DE
L'EUROPE, WINTER : EARLY EVENING
Cold. The window open,
curtains spread as far apart as they will go. Outside, the sky dominates
everything. Because I haven’t closed the window yet, my bed is now so full
of moon there’s almost no room left in it for me. What a bed this is. What
a wide, soft Dutch bed this old hotel has given me this time to lie in by
myself.
In a city like Amsterdam if you sleep alone, you do so by choice. But
after all the nights, good, bad, indifferent, not different I’d rather
stay here empty inside / outside than bed down just to bed down. I’ve been
more alone when someone wrong was here than I’ve been when no one came.
Still... Never mind, if I don’t get up to close the window now there’ll be
no sleep at all.
I will not chase the shadows any more. I’ll draw the curtains tight and
sleep. I’ll work. I’ll read. I’ll go to sleep.
- from "Moment to Moment,"
1973,1975
Rod McKuen concert and
appearance details can be obtained via the link below.
Concert & Appearance Details
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Dick Cavett o
Tommy Dorsey o
Jodie Foster o
Indira Gandhi o
James A. Garfield o
Dan Haggerty o
Savion Glover o
Dorothy Jetter o
Larry King o
Jeane Kirkpatrick o
Calvin Klein o
Meg Ryan o
Ted Turner o
Alan Young |
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Love finds beauty in the plainest smile.
There are some wars a man should never be
afraid to lose. One is the loss that comes from loving, whether in the
lightning or the dark...
Seek out truth until all avenues have been
exhausted.
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FOUR DAYS IN WINTER
from "Moment To Moment" |
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Sunday Night
I’m living
no I’m staying,
down the street.
We can walk.
Monday Afternoon
Blinking like an owl in morning
I woke up wanting you,
for all the Denver days ahead
and ever
after,
for all the Sausalitos past
and Boston nights that ended
before they had beginnings.
Thick throated still
and not yet
wide awake enough
I finally came alive
to find you studying me.
I wish that I
had told you then
I wasn’t what you watched,
and given time to rearrange
my face and frame for you,
I’d be closer to the man
who picked you up
the night before.
Nearer to whatever
you must have wanted
or expected.
But seeing you
at my breath’s edge
filled my head
with such a wonder
that I could only
pray in silence
that though your eyes
were open
you stared at me from sleep.
A sleep I wouldn’t dare
invade.
Tuesday Afternoon
A cat
came off the higher roof
and down below my window,
balancing on so thin a rail
that even pigeons had not dared
that tightrope walk before.
A red and yellow cat
of some age
and some experience
sat the afternoon out
down below my window - waiting
as he must have known
I waited.
A cat for company
until the sunset started
then he leisurely climbed back.
Tuesday Night
I don’t know why we lie here
on the floor collecting dust
when both of us are well aware
that any bed’s more comfortable
than carpet over hardwood.
What the evening needs
is some suggestion.
One of us will have to stop
being or pretending to be shy.
Till boldness catches hold,
of you or me or we,
use my elbow as a pillow
let my body cover you
as lightly as it can
with this bumpy body blanket.
Now we’re eye to eye. Hello.
Wednesday
I move in close,
crouching
like a fighter
waiting for a chance.
An opening.
I cannot wait much longer.
Give in quietly or go.
Are you that wild
late blooming plant ?
If so you might not wait
to tell me
for there’s little time
within this life
and the next one’s
nearly spent.
Wednesday Night
I don’t have to touch you
to be touching you
nor feel your face
to feel your face.
Yet sometimes touching you
I feel you not at all.
There seems to be
so much of you at times
enough to fill
and spill across the room.
Other times
I stretch in your direction
and draw back to me
great armfuls of nothing,
great handfuls of air. - from "Moment To Moment" 1973, 1974, 1975 |
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