27th & 28th June, 2005

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Edward McKuen 12 June, 2005.
© 2005 by Stanyan Music Group. All Rights Reserved.

A Thought for Today

A life without sorrow, set backs and overcoming adversity is no life at all.

 

A New Poem

Today’s poem is dedicated to Jo Anne Pauli who lost her beautiful daughter Kimberly this past September.

Kimberly would have turned forty-three today and those of us who knew and loved her are still trying to come to terms with the absence of this vibrant young woman.

Of course absence is a relative term and I believe what I have written below; that in my own life Kimberly is a presence that welcomly stays on. She seems to be everywhere, so much so that this is the first time in the past ten months that I have been able to write about her. It is a feeble attempt but it is a start.

I celebrate Kimberly every day and her birthday should be no exception. It’s just that I have not yet quite learned how to celebrate her aloud.

RM 6/26/2005 2:10AM PDST

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notable birthdays

Monday 27 June

Isabelle Adjani o Elton Britt o Pam Burns o Audrey Christie o Paul Conrad o Gary Crosby o Julia Duffy o Emma Goldman o W.T. Grant o Bruce Johnston o Bob “Captain Kangaroo” Keeshan o Helen Keller o Laferdio o Tobey Maguire o Lorrie Morgan o Kimberly Pauli o H. Ross Perot o Doc Pomus o Samuel Sanders o James Smithson o Madylin Sweeten o Hugh Woo

Tuesday 28 June

Eric Ambler o Kathy Bates o Don Baylor o Danielle Brisebois o Mel Brooks o Maren Brown o Steve Burton o John Cusack o Bruce Davison o John Dillinger o John Elway o Lester Flatt o King Henry VIII of England o Maureen Howard o George Lloyd o Ashley Montagu o Pat Morita o Luigi Pirandello o Gilda Radner o Richard Rogers o Jean Jacques Rousseau o Otis Skinner o John Wesley
Rod's random thoughts Ideas have in common with the acorn the luxury of starting small and taking several lifetimes to become oaks.

A friend is forever.

To love, it is more important to learn the needs of others than to dwell upon our own.

REMEMBERING KIMBERLY
for Jo Anne Pauli

 She stands smiling
a child-woman of no age,
she laughs and it is not a lilt projected
but the sound of jubilation and of sorrow mixed
each discernible and of substance.

Back behind her eyes lies something
I am meant to know if I could reach it.
Not a secret but a sureness, a purpose.
Come on in those eyes invite
but I see no open doorway, no hatch askew,
no window that would let me in or see me through
these early summer orbs that wish to show me
                                     everything or nothing.

Each time that I am with her,
after she has turned away or I take leave,
there is an aftertaste that ligers. It is as if
what was not spoken, done, was understood
and better than wordplay aloud or whatever.

The spoken word was surface noise not quite
obscuring the deeper thought within the groove
that was beautiful, a melody of such originality
floating on the air between us that none but we
                      could ken or murmur again.

So much mystery behind a much-loved face
that graces every afternoon and evening
of my passing days and will do so until I too
am absent. Such lofty music she goes on carrying
                to a world needy for and awaiting song.

Here or not here she is ever here.
The sly cat watching from the distance
on her terms or none, the friendly feline
passing by and rubbing up against a leg
at feeding time and then retreating for a nap.
One eye open always, even in repose. Sly puss,
a sentinel that misses nothing that is worth a blink.

Remembered? She persists, will not go.
Though she tried her best to leave it
the world will not be rid of Kimberly
till each of us who knew her
has finally and forever gone along.

RM 6/22-27/2005 First publication 6/27/2005
 
     
 
© 1969, 1988, 1994, 2005 by Stanyan Music Group & Rod McKuen. All Rights Reserved
Webmaster: Ken Blackie o Birthday research by Wade Alexander, coordinated by Melinda Smith
Poetry from the collection of Jay Hagan o Sound & Fury: Dr. Eric Yeager o Editor at Large: Bruce Bellingham
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