20th & 21st November, 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rod at home by Chuck Hasse 11/1/08. Copyright 2008 by Stanyan Music Group

A Thought for Today

Aim for the moon. The worst that can happen is you’ll miss it and end up tumbling through the stars.

 

FROM the¨BOOKS

BEACH DIARY 2

With the stars
all stringing out and strung
and the moon half hung
                and hanging,
hunger starts somewhere
within my belly.
It will not be gone
with bowls of guacamole,
        as it didn’t go
with friends and family
commiserating on my loss.

I elected
to come down
to this house
and to this beach
knowing that I couldn’t
leave all memory,
        fact or fiction
in an overcoat at home.

Soon the crickets
will stop adding,
counting, summing up.

The heavy air will set all things
                 to sleeping
and the steady rhythm
of this well-loved,
        well-known ocean
will conspire to keep us there.

That battle won,
another day makes ready
                 to arrive,
another night to follow.

More defeats
or maybe victories
        wait ahead.
I will have to meet
and battle each alone,
but the victory party
isn’t worth the having
if the celebration’s done
                 in solitary.

-from "Looking for a Friend", 1980

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notable birthdays

THURSDAY 20 NOVEMBER

Duane Altman o Kaye Ballard o Judy Canova o June Christy o Alistair Cooke o Richard Dawson o Bo Derek o Chester Gould o Richard Kegler o Robert Kennedy o Rene Kollo o Leadbelly (Hudie Ledbetter) o Richard Masur o Estelle Parsons o Maya Plisetskaya o Emilio Pucci o Dick Smothers o Gene Tierney o Judy Woodruff o Sean Young

FRIDAY 21 NOVEMBER

Troy Aikman o Jim Bishop o Tina Brown o Vivian Blaine o Bjork o Vivian Blaine o Joseph Campanella o Tom Dorsaneo o Coleman Hawkins o Goldie Hawn o Rick Lenz o Laurence Luckinbill o Lorna Luff o Natalia Makarova o Ralph Meeker o Juliet Mills o Stan Musial o Franco Nero o Eleanor Powell o Jean Shepard o Nicollette Sheridan o Livingston Taylor o Marlo Thomas o Voltaire

Rod's random thoughts Stress by any handle, tension or tomorrow, is the enemy of reason.

Gentleness is the proof of human dignity.

Even if you love the lion stay out of his cage.

WHITEBAIT

The birds went looking
all the afternoon
for what whitebait
the fishermen had left
                behind.
I glanced up too
half expecting some brown body
to come slowly down the sand.
What better way to waste my time
than in dreams of glory?

Many did
and many do
come down the beach.
Running, strutting,
       sauntering,
diving in the water
sliding in the sand.
Surely one will stop
                     and look.

Take your time
brown-bodied strangers
I've more hours
than there are stones
along the coastline.

Impatience has been
                 till now
an overriding trouble
         in my life
but I'll not be
         impatient any more.
The sun calmed me,
charmed me into waiting.
I pace myself
the way the sea birds do.

Patrick's coming
in the morning
bringing brine
       and whitebait
so that we can
go out fishing too.

I do not expect
the boys of boredom
to come barging, bolting
        down the sand.
I would rather they moved
              slowly
so that I can search them out.

I'd not wish to see
the girls of summer
parading past me
in a pageant.
Let them file by single file
giving this one man
the chance to twice them over
not look one time, then away.

Surely
as this summer starts
there is mermaid, merman
                somewhere
who will walk or wander by
causing me to have a cause,
a purpose for the year
                             upcoming.

If not I have
the mother ocean still
but making love to relatives
                 is not as full
and all fulfilling
as being filled by strangers
                 or filling up
a proper strangers arms.

- from "The Sea Around Me," 1977

 
     
 
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