17th & 18th July, 2006

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Edward Habib McKuen. ©2006 by Stanyan Audio Video Archives

A Thought for Today

Without regrets there are no aspirations.

 

FROM the¨BOOKS

JULY 16

Years from now we may not need 
to touch so often
          or roll together in the sand
or eat each other with our eyes.

It could be time will make it easy
to go together side by side
with not a single bedroom thought.

But now the elevator man nodding at you
as we step inside his four-by-four castle
makes me worry more than generals worry
when they lose a war.

- from "In Someone’s Shadow", 1968

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notable birthdays

Monday 17 July

S.Y. Agnon o Hardy Amies o Lucie Arnaz o John Jacob Astor o James Cagney o Diahann Carroll o Spencer Davis o Phyllis Diller o Erle Stanley Gardner o William Gargan o Gale Garnett o David Hasselhoff o Mimi Hines o Art Linkletter o Phoebe Snow o Christina Stead o Eleanor Steber o Donald Sutherland

Tuesday 18 July

James Brolin o Dick Button o Hume Cronyn o Dion o John Glenn o Screamin’ J. Hawkins o S.I. Hayakawa o George “Machine Gun” Kelly o Gene Lockhart o Nelson Mandela o Kurt Masur o Elizabeth McGovern o Marvin Miller o Harriet Nelson o Clifford Odets o Martha Reeves o Red Skelton o William Makepeace Thackeray o Hunter S. Thompson o Joe Torre o Lupe Velez o Paul Verhoeven o Jessamyn West o Chill Wills o Yevgeny Yevtushenko

Rod's random thoughts Scratch a legend and you'll find a crack.

Without an audience of one or more, what constitutes the validation of a thought or work?

Compassion is the ability to see other people's needs in the same perspective as our own.

COMING CLOSE

I wanted so
to bend the bough
but never once
to break the branch.

I hoped
that I might see
the blossoms
          fall intact
without the petals
        coming loose
or even once detached.

What I wanted most
        was love
in a straight
straightforward way.

I wanted you
not as you could be
had I made you up
but the way I found you
no different from
the way you really are.

I thought by now
we might have earned
a chance to come down close
and lie against the earth.

But I'm convinced
the earth will not allow
even it's truest lover
membership straight away.

I cannot care
a little for you.
I love you only just enough
to love you all the way.

-from "Coming Close To The Earth,"1977, 1978
(Note: This is a combination of both versions.)

 
     
 
© 1970, 1986, 2002, 2003, 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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