Rod McKuen - Flight Plan


Wednesday 30th June, 2010 Rod McKuen at the Hollywood Autograph Show		A Thought for Today Without some "think time" we relinquish our quest for knowledge to others and are forced to accept their opinions as our own. This One Does It For Me! No single letter this week but over the past month or so I've received a lot of mail asking which song or poem has been Rod's most successful over the years. It's a tough one to answer because different songs, in particular, have been popular in different parts of the world at different times and I thought the best way of tackling such questions was to remind readers of the poll we conducted here back in 2004. The results provided a list of Top Ten favorite poems and songs as voted for by you, the readers of this web site. Here's a reminder of the results and from my perspective the only real surprise was "If You Go Away" ranking so low down the list of songs. All-Time Rod McKuen Favorites The following are the results of a poll conducted among readers of this web site during March, 2004. FAVORITE POEM 1. Goodbye 2. A Cat Named Sloopy 3. Stanyan Street 4. I Always Knew 5. The Art Of Catching Trains 6. Pushing The Clouds Away 7. Another Monday, Two Months Later 8. Age Is Better 9. My Friend The Sea 10. One (from Listen to the Warm) FAVORITE SONG 1. I'll Catch The Sun 2. Bend Down And Touch Me 3. The World I Used To Know 4. Jean 5. Seasons In The Sun 6. The Ivy That Clings To The Wall 7. Love's Been Good To Me 8. If You Go Away 9. I'm Not Afraid 10. I Think Of You 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



		Florence Ballard o Glenda Farrell o Nancy Dussault o Rupert Graves o Susan Hayward o Lena Horne o David Horowitz o Cynthia Karpa o Martin Landau o Tony Musante o Buddy Rich o Ron Swoboda o Mike Tyson o June Valli o Dave Van Ronk

		Every time we say hello to some new encounter we are on our way toward goodbye. -from Lonesome Cities If love hasn't given you wings, do not expect to fly. To be FOR something doesn’t necessarily mean to be AGAINST its opposite.

A FEW OF US WILL STILL STAY ON		Angels hover in the alcoves of the stone cathedral disguised as choirs of children. Old women, black shoes and stockings graduating to black dresses and the midnight hood send time backward in a bounce. Long silences well meant to stretch a conversation sever it instead as we go back to rooms and lofts long corridors of nothingness, great bushels full of nowhere, armloads of emptiness. Has reason lost its spokes and hub? Believing fantasy to be the only highway into life I arise and go into the street attempting to erase reality whatever its disguise. Like the nag who knows the curve of every track I am soon back at the starting gate or heading for the barn. I set out all my candles and leave them burning in the wind. Not content to fire a bridge or two I dynamite the dams and drain the rivers. I waste not time by buying time, I squander it by always reaching far beyond my grasp. I have insured myself against memory and being remembered. Some of us who know that we are fragments do not even wish to be the whole. only part of something larger, satellites to something. If promises were guarantees I would by now have given half my life away and owned a half I will not know. The sense of solitude is that it makes no sense. It is not condition or religion but so of itself to be beyond description. It is as pure as unadulterated green and clean as seas unsighted. I am on the cusp of something. And who of us is not? Tension drags like drops of silver in the air. It is everywhere. Some will surrender long before the liberating troops arrive without the truth as armor they will wither, others may get halfway down the block before dementia or boredom traps them in an alleyway. A few of us will stay on till the end and be rewarded with whatever endings are. Here for the long haul, I am not impatient, only weary of an afternoon when progress has not taken up and carried on its shoulder the flag of pride. -from "Rusting in the Rain," 2004

If you have a favorite McKuen song, poem or story you'd like to share, or a question you need answered, drop me a line (you'll find the address on our Contact Page) and I'll feature your request right here one Wednesday soon.

-Ken, Johannesburg, South Africa, June 30

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

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