Rod McKuen

I have fallen in love with the worldAnd I am aware that I have chosenthe most dangerous lover of them all.

We need sex education in schools, but we need it at home first. We need parents to learn the names of the teachers who are teaching their children. We need families to question day-care centers, to question other children and their own as to what goes on.

I try not to put messages in my songs. My only message is man's communication with his fellow man. I want to narrow the gap of strangeness and alienation.

The journey back is always longer than the forward run.

Unless you call attentionto your presencewho will know you're there?Even a countryhas to weave and wave a flagas proof of its existence.

Cats have it all - admiration, an endless sleep, and company only when they want it.

Looking back few friends had webut I've got him and he's got me.And when the golden minute comeswhen we no longer wake to smellthe river where the wild swans sailedthe orchard where the blossoms fell,we'll smile a little thinkin' of that.Me in my shirt-tails, him with his whiskersme and the cat.

No map to help us find the tranquil flat lands, clearings calm, fields without mean fences. Rolling down the other side of life our compass is the sureness of ourselves. Time may make us rugged, ragged round the edges, but know and understand that love is still the safest place to land.

I went back to look for you.Not understanding the language of hello,I thought I__ speak it just the same.