17th
& 18th December, 2007
|
|

Rod at
Dos Vidas. Photo by Thomas Kist from the 2006 Arjan Vlakveld film “Rod
McKuen: A Man Alone” for Netherlands Public Television. Photo ©2006,
2007 by Stanyan Audio Video Archives. All Rights Reserved.
A Thought for Today
A steady aim, a strong arm, willing hands and a resolute will are the necessary requisites for starting each day.

FROM the¨BOOKS
BEGINNING AGAIN
The eternal magic of eternal things
sends the dreamer out into the world,
brings him home again.
One wind makes another.
Recent rains remind us of a rain ago.
Sunshine is the same every time
seen through different eyes,
felt to different skin,
it is still a wonder and a prize
as love and loving always is again.
I begin today. In life, in love,
in everything
the same start I had every yesterday
not concerned with where I am,
where I have been,
only where I go and to what end.
Does rain provide a resurrection
or plow a final resting place,
does love once done inhibit love,
life once lived stop life
from sprouting from a dying limb?
These must be winter questions
since answers only come when winter
comes again.
Some songs do not exist without the singer
certain rhymes are trapped and lost
on certain pages
but these are only songs and rhymes.
Eternal magic still rampages
on the inside of eternal things.
Fire. The river. Plum and cherry blossom
and the vigilance of all the visions
the dreamer carries back from traveled worlds.
I have been thinking about
the absence of love.
How useless April or December is
without another ear to turn to
or another's eyes to see
a certain wonder exactly in the way
it came to us.
A little melancholia for the final act
a bit of excess baggage shuffled off
and old coat traded in for new.
Nothing is quite
what we think it is.
Clichés become so for good reason,
the best contain a universal truth.
It is never wrong to want,
but you cannot have everything-
Where would you put it?
-
from "The Sound of Solitude", 1983
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
 |