25th
& 26th August, 2008
New concerts announced!
Click HERE for details.
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Photo by Jay Hagan,
7/12/08 Burbank, CA
A Thought for Today
Patience comforts the poor and moderates the
rich.
FROM the¨BOOKS
ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC
Two cats adopted us
one black and white
the other white and black.
You never cared for cats,
not really,
but I am ever grateful
that you indulged
my need for pastoral
that kitchen cats provide.
You silently forgave
their traipsing
and trespassing
in and out of windows,
playing on the stairs
and drinking all the cream
you'd hidden
for your morning coffee.
By that toleration
and your tales of Saki's Tobermory
you spoke great volumes
of your love for me.
By your willingness
to learn about
and then be captured
by a
cat
you proved that even
after half a lifetime
of finding your own way
you still could help invent
a brand new common ground.
Two cats
one black and white,
another white and black.
No matter what
another book or bible says,
you have mastered shadings.
You know that grays exist.
And you have taught me
the eyelids of the
morning
are of a different hue
than those the sunset
settles on us.
Two cats.
The black and white one's
called Atlantic
the white and black, Pacific.
Since both oceans separate us
I fantasize that when I'm gone
one or the other treads through
Little Venice
and comes home to you
to lie contented through the night
at our beds end.
Two lives.
And whatever comes and goes
through the garden
or the window
they could not be closer
even at a distance.
Still for those minutes
once or twice a week
when doubt brought on by need
comes by,
leave the window open
so Atlantic and Pacific
can ebb and flow
in their natural course. -from Folio # 13 & The
British release of "Coming Close To The Earth," 1977. This Revised Version first
appeared in the American version Of "Coming Close To The Earth" in 1978
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Catch Rod McKuen live!
Click on the links below for details of
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ROD McKUEN
CONCERTS
ROD
McKUEN APPEARANCES
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Monday
25 August
Leonard Bernstein o
Clara Bow o
Tim Burton o
Sean Connery o
Elvis Costello o
Billy Ray Cyrus o
Don Defore o
Willy DeVille o
Mel Ferrer o
Rollie Fingers o
Althea Gibson o
Richard Greene o
Monty Hall o
Bret Harte o
Van Johnson o
Ruby Keeler o
Walt Kelly o
Kel Mitchell o
Brian Moore o
Regis Philbin o
Allan Pinkerton o
Claudia Schiffer o
Gene Simmons o
Tom Skerritt o
Blair Underwood o
Jose Van Damm o
Ally Walker o
George Wallace
Tuesday 26 August
Prince Albert of Monaco o
Guillaume Apollinaire o
John Wilkes Booth o
Ben Bradlee o
Nicholas Braithwaite o
Jan Clayton o
Macaulay Culkin o
Jim Davis o
Geraldine Ferraro o
Ronny Graham o
Georgia Gibbs o
Ronny Graham o
Peggy Guggenheim o
Christopher Isherwood o
Michael Jeter o
Lester Lanin o
Bradford Marsalis o
Dr. Albert Sabin o
Wallingford Sawallisch o
Valerie Simpson o
General Maxwell Taylor o
Thalia |
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Conclusions are illusions made a little
firmer.
Ego should contribute to life, not override
it.
Need can drive you down the darkest alley and leave you there, beached
and bloody, but still waiting for the next encounter...
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EPIPHANY |
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Love is such a fragile thing. It always is;
it never was. It's self-assured, misunderstood.
It wants to be an anchor but resents the chain.
It takes liberties while vowing to stay true.
It exaggerates while feigning chaste demureness.
It drives when it should walk, leaps when
it should crawl, and flies without a single lesson.
It pretends when isn't, doesn't know when is.
It pleasures me, ignores another.
It insults me and curtsies to one just behind.
Love is real while being false. It waltzes by,
never turns while turning, turning on itself.
It is alive and dead, revived, and lives again.
It is granted to those who wait. Perhaps.
It is wishes, dreams, sometimes even actuality.
It is a supernova streaking while being only
superficial. Officially it's meant to bind. But
will not do so without help. It can save you,
enslave you . . . but never from yourself. Love,
the beginning of the end, the end as a beginning.-
from "A Safe Place to Land." 2001 |
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