FLIGHT PLAN

Photograph by Bob Gentry 8/5/99

A Thought for Today

Don't speak badly of someone else until the mirror looks back at you without blemishes. Even then, why run down a flag when you can hoist it with the same effort.

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 & The Authors Note from "Looking for a Friend," by Rod McKuen.

Author's Note

This is a book for Ellen lost somewhere in France, checking her reflection in passing window glasses or the downstairs mirror and for Edward, tangled forever in a war of words - misunderstanding me sometimes obstinate and hating Christmas.

For friends who still reside in a stolen address book and those who didn't or would not look up, too shy or for whatever reason see beyond my eyes and help to start initial friendships.

How far is friendship from love? Not very. Both are immediate needs. Both deserve all the care that we can give them. All the trust that we can muster and let go of; all the selflessness that we too easily forget.

Friendship thrives on love. Love is so much better with friendship added. And life doesn't work well in the advance of either.

The new poetry collected here - and there is more than usual - is, I think, due in part to the realization that I'm in love or do love very much the close friends I have. Losing even one would leave an emptiness somewhere inside that no amount of rationalization - or even finding someone new - could possibly fill. So while the overriding theme of this book is friendship, it is also a collection of love.

R.M, April 1980

Night Walker

Go out of an evening
allow yourself the pride
                  and punishment
of being jostled by the crowd.
You may begin your preparation
                                early
but do not leave the house
till half past ten or later.

Begin to think about
the night ahead
early in the day.
Make a plan -
not too detailed,
but one that set in motion
will give wheels and
                         turnstiles
to the night as well.

Concentration
during sunlight hours
should offer each of us
                   the luxury
of walking through the night
without a stumble
                 or a lurch,
missing nothing
catching everything
but allowing us the chance,
the privilege
of being caught.

Streetlights
do not hang like stars
they are strung
like streetlights
but the shadows
they invite and make
are wondrous all the same
hiding places
if you'll hide
finding places
if you're looking -

Go out
of an evening
just to walk.
Smile back,
if smiled at.
Talk, speak up
if you are spoken to.

If the street
is new to you
inquire about
              the shops,
the weather.
Say anything,
but something.

There can be
no initiation
without the firm desire
          of the initiate.

Question
if you're curious
and listen
even if the answers
seldom seem
worth hearing.

Remember
that the other walkers
have planned this evening too
and so you have
             a kinship.

Go out alone
and do not be afraid
if you return alone.
Your life has nights
and evenings up ahead
in great abundance.

Even when
you feel you've reached
the end or edge of life,
                    hold on.
Life itself
will ultimately
take care of you.

While loneliness
is part and parcel
of certain days
and certain weeks,
knowing that it is
will help to make you ready
when it comes.

Aloneness
is quite different,
a privilege and a joy
when you've brushed
against too many
                shoulders
in the dim light
         of the disco
or the bright lights
         of the beach.

Don't forget
what you've always known
you are the captain
of your ship
if not the master
of your soul.

Your soul belongs to God,
if your ship goes drifting
He'll guide it back.
Since every walk
however short
is still a voyage
you may chart the trip
even if the destination
               is unknown.

Avoid all desperation
in the quiet of your room
or at the corner
waiting for the light
                    to change.

Desperation is the enemy
of making lasting friends.

Do not be afraid
of fog or cold
approaching mists
or morning coming.

Make way
for children running
down the block.
Leave your watch at home.

Go out of an evening
unmindful of the clock.
Time travels too
and you will learn
with little study
that time becomes a friend
finally and forever -

Do not ask
the definition
of a friend.
He / she is that one
without whose company
death and dying
set in earlier,
           and living
is made more pleasurable.

That is not to say
a friend can make you
                     live,
only that living
for a friend or fancy
is the ultimate,
the road away from self,
the path that leads
from selfishness
to selflessness.

For if you don't know
where you came from
it's hard to ascertain
just where you're going -
in life or down the block.

For now, go out
            of an evening.

You walker
and you walkers
           of the night
I address my words
and worrying to you.

I am involved with you.
Your joys are mine.
Though I have sorrows
            of my own
I'll take on yours,
but in moderation only.
I expect you
to get on with it.
Remember I'm involved
if only silently.
A friend I am
           and will be.

Night walkers
all need friends.

I knew that you
would find me
in the end.

Hello
Here I am.

                                   - Chosen by MS

Some Thoughts On Finding My Car Broken Into One Sunday Morning Around The Corner From "The Hungry i"

       -first published in "Stanyan Street & Other Sorrows," 1966

                                      - Chosen by JH

"Looking for a Friend" was first published by Pocket Books in 1980