24th & 25th November, 2007

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next month - Rod McKuen in Palm Springs!
Click HERE for details.

 

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

Those who suffer together have the tightest bond.

 

FROM the¨BOOKS

Beginning Again

January 2

The eternal magic of eternal things
sends the dreamer out into the world,
                                brings him home again.
One wind makes another.
Recent rain reminds us of a rain ago.
Sunshine is the same each time
seen through different eyes,
                      felt on different skin,
it is still a wonder and a prize
as love and loving always is again.

I begin today. In life, in love,
                       in everything
the same start I had every yesterday
not concerned with where I am,
                           where I have been,
only where I go and to what end.

Does rain provide a resurrection
or plow a final resting place,
does love once done inhibit love,
life once lived stop life
from sprouting from a dying limb?
These must be winter questions
since answers only come when winter
                                    comes again.

Some songs do not exist without the singer
certain rhymes are trapped and lost
                           on certain pages
but these are only songs and rhymes.
Eternal magic still rampages
on the inside of eternal things.
Fire. The river. Plum and cherry blossom
and the vigilance of all the visions
the dreamer carries back from traveled worlds.

I have been thinking about
                      the absence of love.

How useless April or December is
without another ear to turn to
or another's eyes to see
a certain wonder exactly in the way
                        it came to us.

A little melancholia for the final act
a bit of excess baggage shuffled off
an old coat traded in for new.

Nothing is quite
what we think it is.
Clichés become so for good reason,
the best contain a universal truth.
It is never wrong to want,
but you cannot have everything--
where would you put it?

 - from "The Sound of Solitude'" 1983

Click on the Stanyan House logo to buy Rod McKuen books, CD's and lots more

Click on the heart logo to subscribe to the Rod McKuen mailing list

Catch Rod McKuen live!

Click on the links below for details of concerts and appearances.

ROD McKUEN CONCERTS

ROD McKUEN APPEARANCES

notable birthdays

Saturday 24 November

William F. Buckley, Jr. o Dale Carnegie o Billy Connolly o Helga Sandburg Crile o Denise Crosby o Howard Duff o Dan Falzon o Geraldine Fitzgerald o Katherine Heigl o Scott Joplin o Garson Kanin o John Lindsay o Bat Masterson o Cathleen Nesbitt o Baruch Spinoza o Zachary Taylor o Toulouse-Lautrec o Teddy Wilson o Steve Yaeger

Sunday 25 November

Christina Applegate o Steve Brodie o Andrew Carnegie o Solanus Casey o Kathryn Grant Crosby o Bucky Dent o Joe DiMaggio o Helen Gahagan Douglas o Amy Grant o Haiken Hagegard o Jeffrey Hunter o Wilheim Kempf o John F. Kennedy, Jr. o Jessie Royce Landis o John Larroquette o Ricardo Montalban o Carry Nation o Murray Schisgal o Ben Stein o Virgil Thomson

Rod's random thoughts Making peace with an enemy has more than once rendered him helpless.

The selfish cheat themselves.

Great art is as much about ideas as it is about beauty.

DOWN UNDER

As often as I've lain beneath
the Southern sun in late November,.
I still cannot accept it as a summer month.
Bare bellies at the beach,
brown shoulders in the city square
conspire with pale-cheeked women,
young men in Speedo's
                    sprinting through the sand,
and Sydney smiles of every kind
to beat me down into believing
that seasons can be changed by winks
Oh you summer coming in
(that I am just now learning)
reach out and help me if you can.
Consider all the summers I befriended.
And now consider, if you will
                                befriending me.

-from "The Sound of Solitude," 1983

 
     
 
© 1970, 1986, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 by Stanyan Music Group & Rod McKuen. All Rights Reserved
Webmaster: Ken Blackie • Birthday Research by Wade Alexander • Poems from the collection of Jay Hagan •
Sound & Fury Dr. Eric Yeager • Editor at Large: Bruce Bellingham • Emeritus: Melinda Smith
Want to comment on today's Flight Plan?
Send e-mail to Rod McKuen or post a message at the Rod McKuen Message Board
home page   today's flight plan   flight plan archives   search this site   site map
stanyan