I was saddened to hear that Rod McKuen had died last week. Though not really well known now and almost universally trashed by critics at the height of his fame, McKuen was a popular poet and singer/songwriter back "when I wore a younger man's clothes." I'm not a big fan of blank verse and even I have to admit that McKuen's poetry is not the best but there was something in them that spoke to me. It may have been the connection to the Bay Area - McKuen grew up in Oakland, CA, and his second book was titled Stanyan Street and Other Sorrows, a street that was important to me growing up. Whatever the reason, I learned quite a bit about life and love from his poetry and songs.
Mckuen's life was not easy. He was an illegitimate child who had no idea who his father was and grew up with an alcoholic stepfather. McKuen ran away from home at 11. One of the ways he coped with life was to keep a journal that eventually became source material for his poetry and songs. His obsession with locating his true father was also, I believe, a source of inspiration. He eventually found the answers he sought and chronicled his search in his autobiographical book, Finding My Father.
If Rod McKuen's life teaches us anything, it is that adversity and challenge can some times lead us to do incredible things. How we face challenges determines who we are. This is why I have so little patience for those who try to eliminate all risk from life. If you risk nothing, you stagnate; you fail to grow; you stop living. As McKuen wrote:
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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