Photograph by Bob Gentry 8/5/99
A Thought for Today
Don't give a bad tempered man any refuge. Somebody else
will hire him.
The regular daily Flight Plan will be
suspended for a few weeks while I'm away helping Webmaster Ken Blackie work out the design
and content of our upcoming STANYAN HOUSE web site. I hope you'll continue landing here
ever day though because Jay Hagan and Melinda Smith have chosen two poems from a different
one of my books for every day that I'm gone.
So, something new will be here every morning. The Thought for Today and the Notable
Birthdays will continue. See you soon.
Love, Rod
Two poems from "Coming Close to the
Earth," by Rod McKuen.
Forty / Forty
Your dress is riding now
up above your knees.
Your thighs
are round and growing
as we settle on the common
my eyes go on avoiding yours,
they move along your body
settling now upon the top part
of your legs
uncovered
out of their safe envelope
like a party invitation.
My eyes
now dart from you.
They try to find
a butterfly
a fly ball or an ocean.
Anything.
The park is sunny,
pigeon territory.
Can't we move
back up the stairs
where comfort is the main
concern ?
You know the sun
hangs lower by the minute
its only thought in mind
to give you one more
headache.
I'll run
and get an aspirin
the tallest glass
of water.
Come with me
both of us have had
the sun,
our share of stale air
awaits within.
I'd rather live
and go on living
by pulling deep
into my lungs
the air you breathe
than depend on the wind
from open windows.
No window opens
on a better world
than what we have
within each other's arms.
- Chosen by
JH |
