9th & 10th November, 2006

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Photo by Edward Habib McKuen. ©2006 by Stanyan Audio Video Archives

A Thought for Today

To love is to lie down with the angels.

 

FROM the¨BOOKS

NORTH STREET REMEMBERED

You’ll have a phonograph
            a chef’s hat
and a yellow suit
of your own choosing,
even if we have to
pay for them on time.
A canopy above the bed
that I can chin on.
A headboard
you can prop your head against
                     and
                            read.

You can write and polish words
while I sit quietly
            in some dark corner
                          watching.

I’ll teach you music
slowly and without pain
and you can show me
how to make Quiche Lorraine.

I’ve never been up Beacon Hill,
          you can take me there.
Later in the summer
we’ll go to that beach
in Provincetown.
You can show me
where you started
writing out your poem.

Don’t you see
I’ve got it all worked out
we’ll follow every sun
           there is to follow.
We’ll be equal in all things
you’ll give me youth and you
I’ll give you more of me
           than I yet know.
Each other we will give
           each other’s other.

I’ll lose weight, you’ll see.
Before we leave for California
                    Paris or wherever
we’ll get it all together.

I never sleep so well
as when I’m sleeping
                        next to you
or talk so much
as when I’m talking
         at your ear.
My hand
while touching
just your back
has touched the sky
as sure as God has groped
                          the stars.

Ask my name
and it’s now yours.
Demand my purpose
and you know it’s you.
My needs are only
those wants you want.
And when I sleep this night
                 or any after this,
though you be miles gone,
my head still rests
against your belly,
                  moving down.
Or at your back
against your shoulders
moving not at all.

                                - from "Moment To Moment 1973, 1975

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notable birthdays

Thursday 9 November

Spiro Agnew o Dorothy Dandridge o Marie Dressler o Lou Ferrigno o Tom Fogerty o Whitey Herzog o Chris Jericho o Nick Lachey o Hedy Lamarr o Mae Marsh o Robert Duncan McNeill o Joanna Moore o Edna May Oliver o Pepa (“Salt-N-Peppa”) o Carl Sagan o Anne Sexton o Sargent Shriver o John Singleton o Sisqo o Kay Thompson o Mary Travers o Ivan Turgenev o Tom Weiskopf o Ed Wynn

Friday 10 November

Vanessa Angel o Bob Ashley o Marilyn Bergman o Richard Burton o Francois Couperin o Matt Craven o Donna Fargo o George Fenneman o Jane Froman o Oliver Goldsmith o Chris Joannou o Greg Lake o Dave Loggins o Martin Luther o J.P. Marquand o Billy May o Mackenzie Phillips o Claude Rains o Ann Reinking o Tim Rice o Jack Scalia o Roy Scheider o Johann Schiller o Pippa Scott o Karl Shapiro o Sinbad

Rod's random thoughts We ought to dine with angels every day.

Snow melts in the telling.

With understanding comes both recognition and resignation.

DISCOVERY

Hold on to me
as no one has
while we settle
soft and simple
amid the city grass.

I ask that you
stay long enough
to help me prove
that I have worth
         of some kind.
                     You decide.
Am I narrow as the
                        noontide,
am I high enough
to touch a single star?
Will I ever reach
the far field?

Do I have worth enough
to occupy an hour
                  maybe more
within the frame of reference
                  you call time.

Two people living
giving out the best
           to one the other
               a handshake
or a double handstand
taken to its farthest
and most perfect resting place.

The corners of your eyes
but just the corners--
                   frown.
Your nipples now erect
nudge your dress
as if to burrow through.
You haven't smiled
and yet you do.

I wish that I were
                plain enough
to show you I'm but me
or as fancy as I feel
you think I should be.

Can you carry me
across the water,
turn and run
along the sand
with me
our feet not touching even spray
                          this time.

Help me.

Sort me out
while I divine what's real
             or make believe
                 in you.

Better still deliver me
if not to your own self
then to the midnight's
                 other side.

I could now be saved
by hearing you say no
as surely as salvation lies
on the velvet forehead
              of a yes.

-
"Coming Close to the Earth" was first published in England by Elm Tree Books in 1977. A greatly revised edition was published the following year in the USA by Simon & Schuster.
 
     
 
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