Stewart was a great actor. My one time being in the audience of the old Tonight Show with Johnny Carson back in 1987 he was one of the guests that night.
he late, great actor Jimmy Stewart was quite the amateur poet. From time to time, he would be a guest of the late Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show” and Johnny would ask him to read one of his poems.
On one such occasion, Jimmy read his poem about his frustrating recent experience in Kenya, Africa trying to drive out to see Lake Barengo. Apparently, the road leading to Lake Barengo is not easy to navigate and is very rough, unimproved and lengthy to drive. In trying to reach beautiful Lake Barengo, took Stewart 8 hours and his vehicle suffered four flat tires along the drive.
The final verse of his poem which he read on Carson’s show went “Lake Barengo is a body of water... its water is as smooth as glass. But getting to Lake Borengo... is a genuine pain in the ass.”
While not going to a lake or to an exotic land like Kenya, Africa, but rather planning a Thanksgiving airline trip to visit friends in Denver brought out the poet in me. In the style of Mr. Stewart, it came to me that “At times riding on an airliner, the air can seem as smooth as glass. But today’s airline travel - with bag check fees, lost baggage, delays, cancellations, body scans and pat-downs - today’s airline travel has become a collosal pain in the ass.”
I loved when he would come on and read the poems that he and Gloria had written together...what a marriage!