22nd
& 23rd September, 2007
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Rod at
Dos Vidas. Photo by Thomas Kist from the 2006 Arjan Vlakveld film “Rod
McKuen: A Man Alone” for Netherlands Public Television. Photo ©2006,
2007 by Stanyan Audio Video Archives. All Rights Reserved.
A Thought for Today
You've got autumn, you've got everything.
FROM the¨BOOKS
THROUGH THE AUTUMN FIELD
Moths fill up
the morning
and spiders slide down shafts
of sunlight,
The wind now makes a long,
slow moan.
Tired of all the old Octobers
the moan is more a sigh.
Resigned and lonely
like those of us
who face the wind
the wind itself on seeing autumn
runs to hide.
I walked home
through the field
alone
looking at the row on row
of dead cornstalks
frightened by the frost
arrested by
the first long breath of autumn.
Feeling a little older
but with no new knowledge.
Passing through
the now past summer
I’ve heard nothing.
True, I’ve memorized your thighs
your burnt brown breasts
your eyes, your eyes
but you were busy memorizing
other people’s hands
the kindness
of their summer crotches
the sounding of their sighs.
Without attending
your same school
as pupil or as teacher
I’ve become your familiar.
Bend to me
this first long
autumn night
or let me bend to you.
Everything and nothing
has passed between us
and tomorrow
I’ll pass by again
through frosted fields
where even pumpkins
now detach themselves
from dead and dying vines.
Autumn is a signpost
for the leaving.
Whether leading us
to comfort or despair
autumn points the way.
-from “Beyond the Boardwalk,” 1975, 1976
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