Rod McKuen - Flight Plan


THE FIRST DAY OF WINTER		In winter we return home again to whatever. Cold comfort. Warmth of friends. Strangeness. Death. We hibernate like bears. Seek private places to stay private in. Ward off colds. Christmas for the children. Contemplation for some, loneliness for others. There is a purity to winter. A calmness. The young are left alone because their elders dwell on loss and limits. The new year coming gives us excuses for reassessing our lives and attempting to resolve old conflicts. Maybe the purity of winter has more to do with snow than stuff of stronger substance. -from "A Book of Days", 1981 Of course our friends in the Southern Hemisphere are celebrating the start of summer. Ken e-mailed a day or so ago from Johannesburg that he was spending South Africa’s first summer holiday taking his pool filter in for repair so his daughters could continue swimming algae free. Coral wrote from Melbourne, where she’s spent the last month beefing up an Aussie TV series, that she could hardly wait to get back home to the Gold Coast and her morning walks along the sea... I haven’t noticed the weather much lately, since I seem to have spent a good deal of time under it.. I am well on the mend, thank you, and the first order of the day is a long, low bow to Captain Ken for taking over this space while I was away. Applause, please, for a great job. He selected past flight plans of mine and added his own introductions and commentary, making sure that when you dropped by you weren’t greeted by a blank page. I like the way Ken thinks and writes so his choices were always pleasant surprises for me. He even resurrected his high holiness The Guru for a word or two. If you’d like to see just how well he writes, check out his Webmasters Log Book on the Home Page. Very special thanks to all who sent good wishes . . . .your kind thoughts, "Ally McBeal", "Celebrity Deathmatch" on MTV and the usual dose of Law And Order, while I was bed ridden, seems to have worked. I hope your Christmas shopping is going better than mine is. I’m pretty sure it is, since I’ve yet to start. For the next several days, with the spirit of Christmas in mind, I’ve selected some holiday writing I hope you like. If you get busy and miss a day or so, don’t forget to stop by on Christmas morning for a little something all of us at A Safe Place To Land think you might enjoy. At the very least it’s definitely an Internet First. - RM 12/20/98



		Hector Alizondo o Dame Peggy Ashcroft o Ralph Finnes o Steve Garvey o Maurice Gibb o Robin Gibb o Lady Bird Johnson o Andre Kostelanetz o Giacomo Puccini o J. Arthur Rank o Gene Rayburn o Edwin Arlington Robinson o Diane Sawyer o Deems Taylor

		Winter is a word we choose to remember only vaguely till it blows in all its wonder. I wish you Christmas every time you close your eyes. I pray that you will run with deer and soar with eagles, touching ground only long enough to find that one who’ll love you every bit as much as I do and one you’ll feel the same about. We gather strength through fidelity. It seems to me the other parts contributing to calendars have too little quiet. Though winter can admittedly contain too much.

FOUR SONGS OF THE SEASON		Simple Gifts Though the gift be small and simple if the wish is wide just the simple gift of giving makes you warm inside. Though the thought is ever fleeting if a thought at all remember all the mighty big things started out as small. So if you’ve a gift worth giving let it be your smile let it be a kindly word that makes a stranger stop awhile. Let it be a simple gift then if the wish is wide just the simple gift of giving makes you warm inside. © 1965 by Stanyan Music & Rod McKuen A Hand To Hold at Christmas Everybody needs A Hand To Hold At Christmas All of us could use A friendly smile A pretty holly wreath With presents underneath And most of all. A Hand To Hold At Christmas. Everybody needs A Hand To Hold At Christmas All of us could use A friendly grim A word or two of cheer To finish up the year But most of all. A Hand To Hold At Christmas. When the sidewalk Santa’s Start their jingle jangle jingle And all the streets Are silver and gold Winter ‘s not a wonderland unless you feel a tingle And walking’s only walking without a hand to hold. Everybody needs A Hand To Hold At Christmas Each of us could use A happy heart A tug upon the sleeve Come Christmas eve And best of all. A Hand To Hold At Christmas. © 1965 by Rod McKuen & Stanyan Music The Carol of Christmas refrain The Carols of Christmas, Are warming the winter night And what man among us Has not seen the star so bright That shines up above A symbol of love And all that is good and right. The Carols Of Christmas Float through the air And warm up the winter night verse The wreath of bright holly That covers the Christmas door A symbol of union In things that have gone before Like hope and a handshake Ties that will not break All this and so much more The Carols Of Christmas Float through the air The same as in days of yore. refrain The Carols Of Christmas, Are warming the winter night And what man among us Has not seen the star so bright That shines up above A symbol of love And all that is good and right. The Carols Of Christmas Float through the air Are warm up the winter night ©1971 by Rod McKuen & Editions Chanson Music Thank You For Christmas Thank You For Christmas The first one I remember That was more than just another day Deep in December. Back came the holidays The ones I told goodbye Until you paused a moment And looked me in the eye. And thank you for what I thought I’d never find Christmas of a kind I’d conjured in my mind. As for the lights of town Like Christmas down the hill Off beyond the darkest night I can see them still. I suppose that I knew even then Christmas is for little boys And not for grown up men Still for a time in the year That we’ve just passed I wanted you to know You gave me Christmas at last. © 1970 by Rod McKuen & Editions Chanson Music.

Birthday research by Wade Alexander

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