Gosh, I don't know how many years ago it must have been, but a girlfriend and I used to read the poems of Rod McKuen
. We even went to see him when he visited Bournemouth in England. A lot has happened since those days but I still have nine of his books sleeping on my bookcase today. I rarely wake them now, it's a whole different era and mindset.Here's one of his not so well known works that suggests we should all make a unique contribution to life. Yea, man ... cool
Once I thought
ideas were exceptions
not the rule.
That is not so
they are so plentiful
that they ride by
on air.
You've only to reach out
and snatch one
from the mist
or from nowhere
With little raw material but sand
the sea has made
two hundred thousand mountains
that we'll likely never know
This being so
is it too much to ask
that each man in his lifetime
makes a single contribution,
both unique and useful,
that no man walking down to the beach
has handed us before?
Why not pay back
our birth bill
by adding an idea
even two or six
to the many given us
without condition
or a price?
I used to read Rod, too, but don't recall this poem. It's a good one and the message is priceless.
ReplyDeletenot my cup of tea mike!
ReplyDeleteIn my unplugged time I've spent much of it contemplating what's already out there. Songs, poems, books, movies, plays and so much more have ancient messages woven in their strands and words. We may feel time is speeding up and there will be a stellar "gong" as humanity awakens on a certain calendar date but I think the 2012 transition is a generational evolution.
ReplyDeleteSo, yes, I like the poem and it is timely. Thanks for introducing me to Rod McKuen.
I'm playing hooky today and catching up on long-overdue blog reading. Thank you, Mike....both for the photo and for taking my memory down a long-ago-forgotten path with Rod McKuen. (I might even have a spoken-word LP of his from 'eons' ago!) ;-)
ReplyDelete