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A Thought for Today
Good taste is little more than caring.
Dear Ken,
I have rustled through the archives and haven't found where you might have previously posted my favorite so ...
Unfortunately, my books are still in boxes so I am unable to submit my request by title or by providing the exact quote, let alone the proper line
breaks, etc. But it is from Moment to Moment and to the best of my memory
begins ...
I do not dangle on a strand of sunlight,
nor do I perch on paragraphs of prayers,
I'm a hill and gully rider,
Always on the edge of conversations,
never in the center.
Several stanzas that I won't pretend to know verbatim but it ends
Having been without love for so long
and knowing what _____ each new encounter can bring
I must have been as ready as the rose is to be
first caressed and then ruined by the rain.
An added thanks here to you, not only for the site (you and the man's
devotion and expenditure of time and energy is incredible) but for the new
site map as well. A huge undertaking I am sure and those of us who benefit
from it are grateful.
Namaste,
BJ
(BJ Connery)
Thanks for
your letter and kind comments, BJ, and well done on getting the above
quotes pretty much right.
The piece you
quoted from is the prelude to "Moment to Moment", "The
Leaving". As Rod explains in the author's introduction, there were a
number of versions of this particular book so both the introduction and
some of the poems may differ depending on which version of the book you
have in your possession.
I've taken the
poem from the British version published by W.H. Allen and the author's
note from the original American publication.
Author's Note
I have had small moments I thought big enough to coast on down a lifetime of unrest and no more love and there were epic times, or so I thought, that for some reason run no longer in my head no matter how much effort I put into their remembrance.
If I hadn't kept a diary - and that is what this is, a diary of two long goodbyes and maybe one hello mixed in - I'm not sure what would have stayed remembered and thus how much or little might have been made up. The re-creation sometimes turns out better than the fact. Because I felt these times important for myself, I rushed to write them down almost while they were happening.
I have published a book by this title twice before. The first was done privately and a second edition of that same book greatly revised was published last year in Great
Britain by W.H. Allen. This volume contains less than one third of any of the poetry that appears in either of the previous books and some of the remaining poems have been revised sufficiently to make any comparison almost completely impossible.
The greater part of "A House by the Sea" was lived and written this year. With the exception of several poems that have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Woman's Day and Folio, none of the poetry in this section has been previously published. No part of the prose in either section of this book has been printed before.
Several of the poems are meant to be a part of a much larger work about the sea, some of the prose is from The Word Went Out from Boston - a book in progress.
I have traveled to Holland yearly for a dozen years and yet what happened happened there in ten days' time. I have gone to Mexico every January for the past four years, each time coming home with a nearly finished book. I do not expect to visit Mexico again.
Rod McKuen
April, 1974
Don't forget this is your
column so if you have a favorite McKuen song or poem you'd like to share
with us drop me a line at ken@mckuen.com
and I'll take care of the rest.
- Ken, Johannesburg, January 24
Details of Rod's upcoming concerts
and appearances can be obtained via the link below:
Rod
McKuen Concerts & Appearances
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