THE POETRY OF ROD McKUEN

By Christopher J. Kurtz PhD.

Poet and song writer Rod McKuen was born in 1993 in Oakland, California. He has lived in Nevada, Washington and Oregon and has spent much of his life traveling the rest of the country performing his work. He had been a successful and popular poet, selling nearly 5 million copies of his work. This alone makes him one of the best selling poets of all time, as does the fact that his live readings have filled major stadiums in all of the popular venues in the United States and Europe.

His poems touch on a number of subjects which deal with issues that touch all of us. However, the large umbrella under which his work revolves is the concept of being alone. Who has not, at one time or another, felt this way? McKuen is different than other contemporary poets who have dealt with the concept of being alone in that he sees it not as an end, but as a starting place. In his words, it is "one more square one for reaching out."

He is an advocate for social interaction and this theme is expressed throughout the body of his work, including such masterpieces as Stanyan Street and Other Sorrows and Alone. In an age of fast-paced technology and increased isolation between individuals, McKuen's work screams out to be, not only read, but embraced. Another concept that is present, and which generates itself from the idea of loneliness is that of shadows. Throughout his poems, the presence of shadows are illuminated in each flowing passage which is rich in vibrant imagery and social consciousness.

McKuen is a poet that is desperately trying to uncover answers to the same questions as the common man. He picks a concept and writes several pieces about it in an effort to peel away the levels of obscurity which often blind us in our quest for answers. McKuen creates a world in which the reader can find a better place than the one they are in. He is not a "Wordy" poet, one who bombards the reader with a multitude of phrases and images without saying anything of importance. His work is simple and to the point. This directness has established Rod McKuen as a poet who will survive the ages, for what he says and for what he does not.

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