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Wednesday 23rd November, 2005
Rod in Concert
Holland, December 2005!
San Sebastian Strings
albums now available on CD! Order
now!
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A Thought for Today
Read the best authors and their best books. All of life's rules are contained therein.
This
One Does It For Me!
Dear Ken,
This one does it for me!... Rod's newest book, *Rusting In The Rain*.
The poems, *Mathematics*, and *I Always Knew* are just two of many I
hope you will share with others so that they may come to know the warm,
loving, and inspiring messages in this book.
Love,
Sharon McElroy
Always good to hear from you, Sharon.
It didn't take long for "I Always Knew" to become a firm favorite with
readers following it's first publication on this site back in 1998 and I
was delighted Rod chose to include it in both of his most recent books.
Here are both your requested
poems and thanks for your contribution.
Mathematics
Dawn is the decider. Not just of night
and morning, light that pushes darkness
from horizon to horizon or even
the ending of night in favor of the day.
It is the separator of dreams. The
creeper, like a vine, that crawls through
cracks and gaping holes where emptiness
has long been stronghold.
It will not be crowded out in favor of
reality. It forces us to think, commands
us back into whatever world
we tried escaping by embracing blackness.
Dreams do not die easily or double up
and fall from off the night’s edge,
knowing they will be lit up for all to see
with each expected sunrise that surprises
each of us and takes us drifting through
each day toward a world that we remain
unprepared for or unmindful of -Dreams
stay on. The perch just out of reach.
Dividers only separate what is already
we cannot multiply, subtract or add
unless some substance sits in waiting.
And dawn has never knowingly or with
a touch of malice slain the daydream,
still controlled by each of us subject
only to the living out or lost by
ill attention, laziness or what we term
forgetting. In truth we do give up
on some of our most cherished dreams.
Ah, but never in the night.
- from "Rusting in the
Rain," 2004
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ROD McKUEN
CONCERTS
ROD
McKUEN APPEARANCES
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Labor
Thanksgiving Day (Japan)
Abigail Adams o Susan Anspeth o Billy the Kid o Jerry Bock o Guy Bolton o Maxwell Caulfield o John Dehner o Ellen Drew o Ruth Etting o Manuel de Falla o Andrew Goodman o Merv Hughes o Victor Jory o Boris Karloff o Steve Landesberg o Johnny Mandel o Harpo Marx o Franklin Pierce o Shel Silverstein o Alberto Williams |
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The artist ought to be a temple for his gifts.
Better put your money in trust than your trust in money.
Never perform your experiments in public.
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I ALWAYS KNEW |
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I always knew
that you would find me,
no clock needed to remind
me that it would happen.
I planned on it, worked it out
hid in plain sight every day
knowing you would pass,
that way or this, come along,
go by, pause in moving to
here or somewhere; near or
far it did not matter. You
would
arrive.
It kept the heart
alive and thriving in the clatter
of times' travel to know
that you would turn and see me
then not turn away. You here
or coming, unraveling the puzzle,
kept me whole and safe
and driving on toward this day.
When the evenings, like forever,
started fleeting, going fast
I could see you at some distance
disappearing in the mist.
In the mass of fondled faces
one imagines in a lifetime
yours was there just out of grasp.
As you fluttered in my future,
fled throughout my lifelong past
I expected every spring to bring you
to my arms, to my side. When
the autumns started coming thick
and firm and fast, I never once
gave up believing you'd arrive
with winters passing, you would
be here as the moon fell.
As the sun rose we would clasp
hands at first, then bodies closing
up that awful gap that life without
a life long partner leaves between
the noon and night line. Did I
falter in my faith? Once or twice
perhaps, but never long enough
to leave you languishing in some
dream that wasn't mine. Because
I always knew that you would
find me, I never sent out distress
signals, never tapped out SOS.
I was blessed
with growing knowledge, something
whispered do not worry, it will
happen, it's been planned. Nothing
here is happenstance. Do not hurry.
Do not pause to catch your breath.
So it was I always knew
Now and then I leapt to heaven
on another's stroke or kiss, lent
to me to keep me going in this
sure direction. Afterward the same
affection that I saved, assigned to you
only grew. I always knew that you
would find me and so I did not
bother scrawling each and every
new address on cloud or curb stone.
Why? I was waiting, you knew the rest.
A nocturne for The King of Naples,
A serenade or two for those who
got me through some fearful midnights.
Sonatas for some faces time erases but
does not forget. A double wind concerto
for the wind itself; it could have blown
me anywhere, but wouldn't, didn't. I
dropped some songs along the way in
laps of strangers, even laps I knew. But
this music you see spread around you
these notes and half notes, planted long
ago, that grew and grew was/were saved,
because I always knew that you would
find me and help me with the harvest.
The strongholds, the havens that
proved weak and wanting, lessons
learned, prizes earned, not always
given. Paths I paved, paths unpaved.
The rest of what I have to offer, little
things this life's amassed; for you,
for you, it was for you I saved
the best for last. - from "Rusting in the Rain", 2004 |
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