Category Archives: Lyric

BOOK: “Lonesome Cities” by Rod McKuen

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LONESOME CITIES LTD EDITLONESOME CITIES LTD EDIT by Rod McKuen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Google Books Page

Rod McKuen is the posterchild for poets who were loathed and brutalized by critics, yet who had massive popular followings. He is the Minecraft Movie of poets. McKuen was also a songwriter and recording artist. Poet and lyricist seem almost identical career fields (one makes money for being a simplified version of the other [the poor] one,) but I suspect in their differences one finds a big chunk of the resolution to the aforementioned disparity. At the end of this collection is a chapter entitled “13 Songs” that contains a baker’s dozen of poems that are pop lyric-esque. Until I got to these, I thought McKuen may have been getting an unfair wrap for being schmaltzy and pedestrian, but when I got to them, I could see the truth in the criticism.

This is not to say McKuen would have been as harshly judged today as he was in 1968 when this book came out. He was a bisexual man who is most famous for writing “Seasons in the Sun” (an unambiguously schmaltzy song made popular by Terry Jacks in a much more up-tempo version,) and in an era in which academics were “total squares.”

At any rate, this collection, which is largely organized by city, is a fun read.

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Perspective [Lyric Poem]

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Photograph of a monkey looking sideways through the bars at a temple in Lopburi, Thailand.
Perhaps, you cannot change your jail,
   And you can't choose the lumps and scars --
 No matter how you scream or wail --
   But you pick your view through the bars.

Dragonfly Eye [Lyric Poem]

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Photograph taken at Don Mueang Temple in the north Bangkok suburbs, features waterlilies in the fore and guardian statues in the background. 
The dragonfly strafing lilies 
 doesn't know how very silly
 a bantam taller than a ram
 seems to a ram tall as a filly.

24/7 Wakeup Call [Lyric Poem]

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Photograph taken from Wat Pa Phon Phoa at Luang Prabang, Laos. 
In a mountain village,
   the roosters crow all day.
 Hopes of mid-day napping
   are dashed along the way.

Mountain Azalea [Lyric Poem]

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Photograph of a cluster of pink Mountain Azalea with barren woods in the background. Taken on the Sawnee Mountain Trail in North Georgia.
One cluster of Mountain Azalea
   Stands out like royal regalia,
 Adorning a near naked vagrant --
    But much more pleasingly fragrant.

White [Lyric Poem]

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Against the bright white palace domes
   fluffy clouds seem a tad too much,
 and so they start to limp on home
   like a gimp beggar on his crutch.

PROMPT: Tattoo

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Daily writing prompt
What tattoo do you want and where would you put it?
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I would not like a tattoo. 
 I would not like one - old or new. 
 I wouldn't like one in a Zoo. 
 I wouldn't like one in a canoe. 
 I would not like one, 
   Ham though I am, 
 I would not like any body-spam.

Classing It Up [Lyric Poem]

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Photograph of "Le Toilet," a Mona Lisa-festooned Port-o-Potty in downtown Decatur, Georgia -- in front of the Old Courthouse.
One can't class up a Porta Potty
   With French or fancy works of art.
 For each is like a ghetto squatty
   Where one fears to sit... or even fart.

Locus [Common Meter]

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One clump of flowers has the power
   To lure the eye’s focus.
 The background blurs as mind infers
    Which hue shall be the locus.

Peach Blossoms [Lyric Poem]

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Photograph of Peach Blossoms taken in early March in Atlanta's Piedmont Park. 
I see the Peach Blossoms of Spring,
   And think of old Li Bai’s answer.
 
In wordless replies, the world sings;
   In unpeopled worlds, there’s a dancer.

The referenced poem by Li Bai [李白] is entitled Question and Answer in the Mountains [山中问答] and is crudely translated as:

I'm asked why I live in mountains.
   I laugh while giving no reply.

Peach Blossoms flow from sight & mind;
   Beyond men, another Earth & Sky.

Or, in Chinese: 

问余何意栖碧山，
笑而不答心自闲。

桃花流水窅然去，
别有天地非人间。