The following poem was written by a most extraordinary poet named Rod McKuen.
His books of poetry and song have gotten me through many an emotional time. The following is my all time favorite Rod McKuen poem. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
The Leaving
Lingering
as the dying do
between that life
just past
and the still unknown,
I only know enough
about myself as yet
to know that I don't
know enough.
Nor can I say
I know what's missing-
voids are voids
only seen completely
after we've had
victories over them.
I do not dangle
at the dawning
on a strand of sunlight,
nor do I perch on
paragraphs of prayer.
I'm hill and gully rider
only on the edge
of conversations
never in the center.
Get close enough to learn
but lean as little as you can
and only then
to have a closer listen.
All men have lessons
they can give you
even in rejection.
And the least
that you can offer
any man
is your good arm
or shoulder.
There will be
times when many
will want pieces of you
but only offer up the whole.
The small times count,
the inches not the miles.
Touches not tradition
will fill your memory
in the morning or the end.
And memories are
the only sanity
the world can now
assure us.
While traversing a lifetime
we should not concern ourselves
with steps that lead us
day to decade
or even year to year.
Moment to moment is enough,
you do not ask for more
though it is
certain to be given almost always.
Whatever interlude
of kindness or of light,
real or pretended
you see coming
through the distance
be ready and be open.
The cost
of one warm moment
is considerable
but worth the poverty
that staying private means.
I know this and I knew it
that September night
in Amsterdam.
And having been without love
for so long a time
and what new knowledge
each encounter brings
I must have been
as ready as a rose is
to be caressed
and then be ruined
by the rain.
Rod McKuen
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