Listen To The Warm -Rod McKuen

Rod McKuen is another favorite of mine. His books, Listen To The Warm and Seasons In The Sun (yes, he wrote the song that was a big hit in the 70's) are two of my favorites. Breathtaking and heartbreaking. Just the way I like it.

I've drawn your face
on tablecloths across the country.
Tracing your smile
with my index finger,
making your hair just so.
Till now you are more
what I want you to be
than what you are.

I can paint yours eyes and say
this is where I lived
for twenty minutes and more.

I order grapefruit
and pay for ruined napkins.
And between the morning and the eveningI draw your face a little fainter every day.
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“I've been going a long time now

along the way I've learned some things.

You have to make the good times yourself.

Take the little times and make them into big times

and save the times that are all right

for the ones that aren't so good.”

―  Rod McKuen, Listen To The Warm

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“It's nice sometimes

to open up the heart a little

and let some hurt come in.

It proves you're still alive.”

―  Rod McKuen, Listen To The Warm

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How can you say something new about being alone?

Tell someone you're a loner 

and right away they think you're lonely.

It's not the same thing you know.

It's not wanting to put all your marbles in one pocket.

It;s caring enough to not care too much.

Mostly it's letting yourself come first for awhile.

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Eighteen

I stood watching
as you crossed the street
               for the last time.
Trying hard to memorize you.
Knowing it would be important.
The way you walked,
the way you looked back over you shoulder at me.

Years later 

I would hear the singing of the wind

and the day's singing would come back.

That time of going would return to me

every sun-gray day.

April or August it would be the same

       for years to come.

Man has not made the kind of bromide

that would let me sleep without your memory

or written erotically enough

to erase the excitement of just your hands.

These long years later it is worse

for I remember what it was

as well as what it might have been.

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“This is the way it was while I was waiting for your eyes to find me.”

―  Rod McKuen, Listen To The Warm

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“Be gentle with me, new love.

Treat me tenderly.

I need the gentle touch,

the soft voice,

the candlelight after nine.

There's been so many who didn't understand

so give me all the love I see in your timid eyes

but give it gently.

Please.”

―  Rod McKuen, Listen To The Warm

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We come into the world alone,

we go away the same.

we're meant to spend 

the interlude

between in closeness

or so we tell ourselves,

But it's a long way from morning to the evening.

 -Rod McKuen, Listen To The Warm

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There is no wrong side or right side.
No misery in not being loved
only in not loving.
I learned these truths myself
I tell them to you now
as you go sailing through the sun
on your way towards life.
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I don't have to touch you
to be touching you
Nor feel your face to feel your face. 
Yet, sometimes touching you 
I feel you not at all.
There seems to be 
so much of you at times
enough to fill
and spill across the room.
Other times
I stretch in your direction
and draw back to me
great armfuls of air.
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In loving you

I've held back no reserve

and so I've nothing left

to give tomorrow's lover

when you go.

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And then there is my favorite:

If You Go Away (Ne me quitte pas-Please Don't Go)

If you go away on this summer day,

Then you might as well take the sun away;

All the birds that flew in the summer sky,

When our love was new and our hearts were high

When the day was young and the night was long,

and the moon stood still for the night birds song.

If you go away, Ne me quitte pas

But if you stay, I'll make you a day

Like no day has been, or will be again;

We'll sail the sun, we'll ride on the rain,

We'll talk to the trees and worship the wind.

Then if you go, I'll understand,

Leave me just enough love to fill up my hand,
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