What A Writer by Charles Bukowski

© Gottfried Helnwein

What A Writer
Charles Bukowski

what i liked about e.e. cummings
was that he cut away from
the holiness of the
word
and with charm
and gamble
gave us lines
that sliced through the
dung.

how it was needed!
how we were withering
away
in the old
tired
manner.

of course, then came all
the e.e. cummings
copyists.
they copied him then
as the others had
copied Keats, Shelly,
Swinburne, Byron, et
al.

but there was only
one
e.e. cummings.
of course.

one sun.

one moon.


E. E. Cumming and Charles Bukowski on one page. Now that´s a page for me and my husband. Usually I hear from writers/poets that others aren´t as good as themselves. It´s nice to see an appreciating Charles Bukowski too (one sun, one moon, one e. e. cummings, one charles bukowski). But then I wasn´t really surprised that Bukowski surprised me.

The Icecream People by Charles Bukowski

The icecream we had this afternoon was good. It reminded me of another poem by Charles Bukowski: The Icecream People. I can relate to his understanding of icecream people. :)


The Icecream People
Charles Bukowski

the lady has me temporarily off the bottle
and now the pecker stands up
better.
however, things change overnight--
instead of listening to Shostakovich and
Mozart through a smeared haze of smoke
the nights change, new
complexities:
we drive to Baskin-Robbins,
31 flavors:
Rocky Road, Bubble Gum, Apricot Ice, Strawberry
Cheesecake, Chocolate Mint...

we park outside and look at icecream
people
a very healthy and satisfied people,
nary a potential suicide in sight
(they probably even vote)
and I tell her
"what if the boys saw me go in there? suppose they
find out I'm going in for a walnut peach sundae?"
"come on, chicken," she laughs and we go in
and stand with the icecream people.
none of them are cursing or threatening
the clerks.
there seem to be no hangovers or
grievances.
I am alarmed at the placid and calm wave
that flows about. I feel like a leper in a
beauty contest. we finally get our sundaes and
sit in the car and eat them.

I must admit they are quite good. a curious new
world. (all my friends tell me I am looking
better. "you're looking good, man, we thought you
were going to die there for a while...")
--those 4,500 dark nights, the jails, the
hospitals...

and later that night
there is use for the pecker, use for
love, and it is glorious,
long and true,
and afterwards we speak of easy things;
our heads by the open window with the moonlight
looking through, we sleep in each other's
arms.

the icecream people make me feel good,
inside and out.

Melancholia By Charles Bukowski

Melancholia
Charles Bukowski

the history of melancholia
includes all of us.

me, I writhe in dirty sheets
while staring at blue walls
and nothing.

I have gotten so used to melancholia
that
I greet it like an old
friend.

I will now do 15 minutes of grieving
for the lost redhead,
I tell the gods.

I do it and feel quite bad
quite sad,
then I rise
CLEANSED
even though nothing
is solved.

that's what I get for kicking
religion in the ass.

I should have kicked the redhead
in the ass
where her brains and her bread and
butter are
at ...

but, no, I've felt sad
about everything:
the lost redhead was just another
smash in a lifelong
loss ...

I listen to drums on the radio now
and grin.
there is something wrong with me
besides
melancholia.

What I like most about Charles Bukowski is that he is just honest and straight-forward and doesn´t seem too complicated. I guess this can be applied to his writing too. He doesn´t seem to care about the consequences of his words. That can hurt. But I prefer the hurtful truth to dishonesty and evasion.

Bukowski Tattoo

I like text tattoos and this one looks very nice. It is part of a text by Charles Bukowski.
The Norwegian jazz composer and vocalist Kristin Asbjørnsen with her band Dadafon sings this subtle and graceful solo piano piece "I Wish to Weep" for the movie Factotum. The words for the song were taken from a Bukowski poem found in his book "What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk Through the Fire".

Here´s another video of Kristin Asbjørnsen.

Rain by Charles Bukowski

I just received a comment from Angelina. She said that she was glad to have stumbled on my blog and to have had the chance to read something of Bukowski which she could actually enjoy and which wasn´t too depressing. So this poem is specially for her.
I don´t find his work depressing at all. Actually I tend to laugh a lot while reading his books. That may sound strange, but I guess it is the way he describes everything. Often while reading his work, I nod to myself and think he just knows how crazy this world is. Another thing I really like about him is that he doesn´t judge his characters and you can feel his sympathy for them (even if his language may not be very sensitive ;) ).


Rain
Charles Bukowski

a symphony orchestra.
there is a thunderstorm,
they are playing a Wagner overture
and the people leave their seats under the trees
and run inside to the pavilion
the women giggling, the men pretending calm,
wet cigarettes being thrown away,
Wagner plays on, and then they are all under the
pavilion. the birds even come in from the trees
and enter the pavilion and then it is the Hungarian
Rhapsody #2 by Lizst, and it still rains, but look,
one man sits alone in the rain
listening. the audience notices him. they turn
and look. the orchestra goes about its
business. the man sits in the night in the rain,
listening. there is something wrong with him,
isn't there?
he came to hear the music.

If I would have been there, I would have joined the man and would haven enjoyed the rain/music.

I Met A Genius by Charles Bukowski

I Met A Genius
by Charles Bukowski

I met a genius on the train
today
about 6 years old,
he sat beside me
and as the train
ran down along the coast
we came to the ocean
and then he looked at me
and said,
it's not pretty.

it was the first time I'd
realized
that.

Charles Bukowski is one of my favorite writers. He makes me smile, so there will be more to come!

Oh Yes By Charles Bukowski

Oh Yes
Charles Bukowski

there are worse things than
being alone
but it often takes decades
to realize this
and most often
when you do
it's too late
and there's nothing worse
than
too late.

I never have been able to relate to people who can´t stand being alone. Ever since I remember I enjoy being with people, but somehow I enjoy it even more being alone.
With this poem I´m starting a short series of Charles Bukowski´s poems.

Mistake By Charles Bukowski

Mistake
Charles Bukowski

I reached up into the top of the closet
and took out a pair of blue panties
and showed them to her and
asked "are these yours?"

and she looked and said,
"no, those belong to a dog."

she left after that and I haven't seen
her since. she's not at her place.
I keep going there, leaving notes stuck
into the door. I go back and the notes
are still there. I take the Maltese cross
cut it down from my car mirror, tie it
to her doorknob with a shoelace, leave
a book of poems.
when I go back the next night everything
is still there.

I keep searching the streets for that
blood-wine battleship she drives
with a weak battery, and the doors
hanging from broken hinges.

I drive around the streets
an inch away from weeping,
ashamed of my sentimentality and
possible love.

a confused old man driving in the rain
wondering where the good luck
went.

I like the picture above of Charles Bukoswki.

I'm In Love By Charles Bukowski

I'm In Love
Charles Bukowski

she's young, she said,
but look at me,
I have pretty ankles,
and look at my wrists, I have pretty
wrists
o my god,
I thought it was all working,
and now it's her again,
every time she phones you go crazy,
you told me it was over
you told me it was finished,
listen, I've lived long enough to become a
good woman,
why do you need a bad woman?
you need to be tortured, don't you?
you think life is rotten if somebody treats you
rotten it all fits,
doesn't it?
tell me, is that it? do you want to be treated like a
piece of shit?
and my son, my son was going to meet you.
I told my son
and I dropped all my lovers.
I stood up in a cafe and screamed
I'M IN LOVE,
and now you've made a fool of me. . .
I'm sorry, I said, I'm really sorry.
hold me, she said, will you please hold me?
I've never been in one of these things before, I said,
these triangles. . .
she got up and lit a cigarette, she was trembling all
over.she paced up and down,wild and crazy.she had
a small body.her arms were thin,very thin and when
she screamed and started beating me I held her
wrists and then I got it through the eyes:hatred,
centuries deep and true.I was wrong and graceless and
sick.all the things I had learned had been wasted.
there was no creature living as foul as I
and all my poems were
false.

Poor guy!

David´s Moly_x_6

Done for Moleskine Exchange group 6.

Yes Yes
Charles Bukowski

when God created love he didn't help most
when God created dogs He didn't help dogs
when God created plants that was average
when God created hate we had a standard utility
when God created me He created me
when God created the monkey He was asleep
when He created the giraffe He was drunk
when He created narcotics He was high
and when He created suicide He was low

when He created you lying in bed
He knew what He was doing
He was drunk and He was high
and He created the mountains and the sea and fire at the same time

He made some mistakes
but when He created you lying in bed
He came all over His Blessed Universe.

Losing Your Soul

“If you're losing your soul and you know it, then you've still got a soul left to lose.”

Would you have believed that Charles Bukowski could also say something comforting? This is how I understood the quote.

Charles Bukoswki

Before I start a short series of pics for IFN: My favorite sexual fantasy, I´ll want to end the Charles Bukowski series for now with this quote:

“Sometimes you just have to pee in the sink.”