15th & 16th December, 2005
San Sebastian Strings
albums now available on CD! Order
now!
|
|
Photo by Edward McKuen 9/24/2005
A Thought for Today
Love, like brotherhood, demands getting out of yourself.
FROM the¨BOOKS
THE FIRST
No matter when I start
that first day’s walk
along the tide’s white ragged edge,
someone’s been ahead of me.
I went at noon the first day,
ten the next.
Finally at sunrise
I started out
and on this very morning
I was up before the sun
guided by the whitecaps only
luminous in the dimming starlight.
When at last the light
began to rim the far horizon
I saw beside my own, new footprints
in the Monday sand
a larger imprint trailing on
ahead of me.
And beside the wide stride
on this quiet beach
the soft impression of a dog
who must have trotted
by his master’s side.
I’ve but one more morning
left to me
before I trade Tres Vidas
for the city,
but if I have to start out
down the beach at midnight
or before
I’m determined to confront
the brown beach man
who dares to think
he loves my ocean
more than me.
And anyway,
the ocean’s all
that I have left.
There won’t be anyone again,
but there will always be
sea water and sea things
to wash the memories
into one
another.
That’s a comfort
not to be taken lightly,
considering the sea
is all I have.
- from "Moment To Moment" 1973, 1975
Click
on the Stanyan House logo to buy Rod McKuen books, CD's and lots more
Click on the heart logo to
subscribe to the Rod McKuen mailing list
Catch Rod McKuen live!
Click on the links below for details of
concerts and appearances.
ROD McKUEN
CONCERTS
ROD
McKUEN APPEARANCES
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Thursday 15 December
Maxwell Anderson o
Jeff Chandler o
Dave Clark o
Tim Conway o
Alexandre Eiffel o J.
Paul Getty o
Friedensreich Hundertwasser o
Don Johnson o
Yvonne Keller o
Rose Maddox o
Karen Morrow o
Emperor Nero o
Muriel Rukeyser o
Gladys Shelley o
Helen Slater o
Jerry Wallace
Friday
16 December
Benny Andersson o
Jane Austen o
Ludwig van Beethoven o
David Ben-Gurion o
Steven Bochco o
Leonid Brezhnev o
Tom Brookshier o
Arthur C. Clarke o
Noel Coward o
Ben Cross o
Billy Gibbons o
Michael McCary o
Margaret Mead o
William "Refrigerator" Perry o
George Santayana o
Lesley Stahl o
Jon Tenney o
Liv Ullmann |
|
 |
|
A string needs tying up as every empty space, merely to prove
its existence, needs walking through.
Equality means not
only equal rights but equal responsibility to one’s neighbor and one's self.
Democracy only works when practiced.
|
|
GIFT WITHOUT STRINGS |
|
I'll walk you
just as far
as Christmas Day
and not one hour further,
leaving you to make your way
through the winter and the springs ahead.
A gift I give you
with no ribbon or bright bow
attached to me
or to a Christmas contract.
A present of reality
is made from truth
as much as it is shaped with love.
Go forward, straight ahead.
There are no limits on your life
but those barricades
you'll build yourself.
Though I give you only words
to unravel on this Christmas day
and words may not seem
such a pretty present,
if you let them work for you
one day you'll thank me
with a shining smile
brighter than the one I'm sending
out and over
to your young face just now.
-from "The Carols of Christmas," 1971 |
|
|
|
