“
there is a place in the heart that
will never be filled
a space
and even during the
best moments
and
the greatest times
times
we will know it
we will know it
more than
ever
there is a place in the heart that
will never be filled
and
we will wait
and
wait
in that space.
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
I've never been lonely. I've been in a room -- I've felt suicidal. I've been depressed. I've felt awful -- awful beyond all -- but I never felt that one other person could enter that room and cure what was bothering me...or that any number of people could enter that room. In other words, loneliness is something I've never been bothered with because I've always had this terrible itch for solitude. It's being at a party, or at a stadium full of people cheering for something, that I might feel loneliness. I'll quote Ibsen, "The strongest men are the most alone." I've never thought, "Well, some beautiful blonde will come in here and give me a fuck-job, rub my balls, and I'll feel good." No, that won't help. You know the typical crowd, "Wow, it's Friday night, what are you going to do? Just sit there?" Well, yeah. Because there's nothing out there. It's stupidity. Stupid people mingling with stupid people. Let them stupidify themselves. I've never been bothered with the need to rush out into the night. I hid in bars, because I didn't want to hide in factories. That's all. Sorry for all the millions, but I've never been lonely. I like myself. I'm the best form of entertainment I have. Let's drink more wine!
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
great writers are indecent people
they live unfairly
saving the best part for paper.
good human beings save the world
so that bastards like me can keep creating art,
become immortal.
if you read this after I am dead
it means I made it.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (The People Look Like Flowers at Last)
“
Love is a form of prejudice. You love what you need, you love what makes you feel good, you love what is convenient. How can you say you love one person when there are ten thousand people in the world that you would love more if you ever met them? But you'll never meet them. All right, so we do the best we can. Granted. But we must still realize that love is just the result of a chance encounter. Most people make too much of it. On these grounds a good fuck is not to be entirely scorned. But that's the result of a chance meeting too. You're damned right. Drink up. We'll have another.
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
the best often die by their own hand
just to get away,
and those left behind
can never quite understand
why anybody
would ever want to
get away
from
them
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
The best thing about the bedroom was the bed. I liked to stay in bed for hours, even during the day with covers pulled up to my chin. It was good in there, nothing ever occurred in there, no people, nothing.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Ham on Rye)
“
There is a place in the heart that will never be filled; a space. And even during the best moments, and the greatest times, we will know it.
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
Sometimes a man doesn’t know what to do about things and sometimes it’s best to lie very still and try not to think at all about anything.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame)
“
No Help of that
There is a place in the heart that will never be filled a space. And even during the best moments and the greatest times we will know it We will know it more that ever. There is a place in the heart that will never be filled and we will wait and wait in that place.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense)
“
there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average
human being to supply any given army on any given day and the best at murder are those who preach against it
and the best at hate are those who preach love and the best at war finally are those who preach peace
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
the best part was
pulling down the
shades
stuffing the doorbell
with rags
putting the phone
in the
refrigerator
and going to bed
for 3 or 4
days.
and the next best
part
was
nobody ever
missed
me.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense)
“
The Genius Of The Crowd
there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average
human being to supply any given army on any given day
and the best at murder are those who preach against it
and the best at hate are those who preach love
and the best at war finally are those who preach peace
those who preach god, need god
those who preach peace do not have peace
those who preach peace do not have love
beware the preachers
beware the knowers
beware those who are always reading books
beware those who either detest poverty
or are proud of it
beware those quick to praise
for they need praise in return
beware those who are quick to censor
they are afraid of what they do not know
beware those who seek constant crowds for
they are nothing alone
beware the average man the average woman
beware their love, their love is average
seeks average
but there is genius in their hatred
there is enough genius in their hatred to kill you
to kill anybody
not wanting solitude
not understanding solitude
they will attempt to destroy anything
that differs from their own
not being able to create art
they will not understand art
they will consider their failure as creators
only as a failure of the world
not being able to love fully
they will believe your love incomplete
and then they will hate you
and their hatred will be perfect
like a shining diamond
like a knife
like a mountain
like a tiger
like hemlock
their finest art
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
You know the typical crowd, Wow, it’s Friday night, what are you going to do? Just sit there? Well, yeah. Because there’s nothing out there. It’s stupidity. Stupid people mingling with stupid people. Let them stupidify themselves. I’ve never been bothered with the need to rush out into the night. That’s all. Sorry for all the millions, but I’ve never been lonely. I like myself. I’m the best form of entertainment I have.
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
The nights you fight best are
when all the weapons are pointed at you,
when all the voices hurl their insults
while the dream is being strangled.
The nights you fight best are
when reason gets kicked in the gut,
when the chariots of gloom encircle you.
The nights you fight best are
when the laughter of fools fills the air,
when the kiss of death is mistaken for love.
The nights you fight best are
when the game is fixed,
when the crowd screams for your blood.
The nights you fight best are
on a night like this
as you chase a thousand dark rats from your brain,
as you rise up against the impossible,
as you become a brother to the tender sister of joy
and move on
regardless.
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
I found the best thing
I could do
was just to type away
at my own work
and let the dying
die
as they always have.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense)
“
I guess I´m too used to sitting in a small room and making
words do a few things. I see enough of humanity at the
racetracks, the supermarkets, gas stations, freeways, cafes,
etc. This can´t be helped. But I feel like kicking myself in
the ass when I go to gatherings, even if the drinks are free.
It never works for me. I´ve got enough clay to play with.
People empty me. I have to get away to refill. I´m what´s best
for me, sitting here slouched, smoking a beedie and watching
this creen flash the words. Seldom do you meet a rare or
interesting person. It´s more than galling, it´s a fucking
constant shock. It´s making a god-damned grouch out of me.
Anybody can be a god-damned grouch and most are. Help!
”
”
Charles Bukowski (The Captain is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship)
“
my hands dead
my heart dead
silence
adagio of rocks
the world ablaze
that's the best
for me.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Love Is a Dog from Hell)
“
Every woman is different. Basically they seem to be a combination of the best and the worst—both magic and terrible. I’m glad that they exist, however.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Women)
“
It’s not so much that nothing means
anything but more that it keeps meaning
nothing.
there’s no release, just gurus and self-
appointed gods and hucksters.
the more people say, the less there is to say.
even the best books are dry sawdust.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (The People Look Like Flowers at Last)
“
Sometimes things are just what they seem to be and that's all there is to it. The best interpreter of the dream is the dreamer.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Pulp)
“
there is a place in the heart that
will never be filled
a space
and even during the
best moments
and
the greatest
times
we will know it
we will know it
more than
ever
there is a place that
will never be filled
and
we will wait
and
wait
in that
space.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense)
“
unaccountably we are alone
forever alone
and it was meant to be
that way,
it was never meant
to be any other way–
and when the death struggle
begins
the last thing I wish to see
is
a ring of human faces
hovering over me–
better just my old friends,
the walls of my self,
let only them be there.
I have been alone but seldom
lonely.
I have satisfied my thirst
at the well
of my self
and that wine was good,
the best I ever had,
and tonight
sitting
staring into the dark
I now finally understand
the dark and the
light and everything
in between.
peace of mind and heart
arrives
when we accept what
is:
having been
born into this
strange life
we must accept
the wasted gamble of our
days
and take some satisfaction in
the pleasure of
leaving it all
behind.
cry not for me.
grieve not for me.
read
what I’ve written
then
forget it
all.
drink from the well
of your self
and begin
again.
Mind and Heart
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Come On In!: New Poems)
“
startling! such determination in the
dull and uninspired
and the copyists.
they never lose the fierce gratitude
for their uneventfulness,
nor do they forget to laugh
at the wit of slugs;
as a study in diluted senses
they'd make any pharaoh
cough up his beans;
in music they prefer the monotony of
dripping faucets;
in love and sex they prefer each other
and therefore compound the
problem;
the energy with which they propel their
uselessness
(without any self-doubt)
toward worthless goals
is as magnificent as
cow shit.
they produce novels, children, death,
freeways, cities, wars, wealth, poverty, politicians
and total areas of grandiose waste;
it's as if the whole world is wrapped in dirty
bandages.
it's best to take walks late at
night.
it's best to do your business only on
Mondays and
Tuesdays.
it's best to sit in a small room
with the shades down
and
wait.
the strongest men are the fewest
and the strongest women die alone
too.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (The People Look Like Flowers at Last)
“
I like dogs better than men and cats better than dogs and myself best of all, drunk in my underwear looking out the window.
”
”
Bukowski, Charles
“
your best men are
drunks and your worst men are
locking them
up,
your best men are killers and
your worst men are
selling them
bullets
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Betting on the Muse: Poems & Stories)
“
one of Lorca’s best lines is, “agony, always agony…” think of this when you kill a cockroach or pick up a razor to shave or awaken in the morning to face the sun.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (You Get So Alone At Times That It Just Makes Sense)
“
I didn't feel that way about it. I had been playing with death for some time. I can't say we were the best of friends but we were well acquainted.
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
Days like this, like your day today.
maybe the rain on the window trying to
get through to you. What do you see today?
what is it? where are you?
the best days are sometimes the first,
sometimes the middle and even sometimes the last
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame)
“
My part of the game is that I must live the best I can.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills)
“
if I had met you I would probably have been unfair to you or you to me. it was best like this.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Love Is a Dog from Hell)
“
ambition rarely has anything to do with talent. Luck is best, and talent limps along a little bit behind luck.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Love is a Dog from Hell)
“
the nights you fight best
are
when all the weapons are pointed
at you,
when all the voices
hurl their insults
while the dream is being
strangled.
the nights you fight best
are
when the game is
fixed,
when the crowd screams
for your
blood.
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
And if there is anybody out there who is crazy enough to want to become a writer, I'd say go ahead, spit in the eye of the sun, hit those keys, it's the best madness going, the centuries need help, the species cry for light and gamble and laughter. Give it to them. There are enough words for all of us.
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
Often the best parts of life were when you weren’t doing anything at all, just mulling it over, chewing on it. I mean, say that you figure that everything is senseless, then it can’t be quite senseless because you are aware that it’s senseless and your awareness of senselessness almost gives it sense. You know what I mean? And optimistic pessimism.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Pulp)
“
the worst men have the best jobs the best men have the worst jobs or are unemployed or locked in madhouses.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills)
“
I was compared to Charles Bukowski yesterday. It was the best and worst compliment I've ever gotten.
”
”
Rosa Sophia
“
I was like a turd that drew flies instead of like a flower that butterflies and bees desired. I wanted to live alone,I felt best being alone, cleaner,,,
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Ham on Rye)
“
There are no good wars or bad wars. The only thing bad about a war is to lose it. All wars have been fought for a so-called good Cause on both sides. But only the victor's Cause becomes history's Noble Cause. It's not a matter of who is right or who is wrong, it's a matter of who has the best generals and the better army!
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Ham on Rye)
“
the bar was the best place to hide in. time came under your control, time to wade in, time to do nothing in. no guru was needed, no god. nothing expected but yourself and nothing lost to the unexpected.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (The Last Night of the Earth Poems)
“
What kind of d*ck are you? Celine asked.
-The best in L.A.
-Yes? What's L.A. stand for?
-Lost as*holes.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Pulp)
“
Too many writers write for the wrong reasons.
They want to get famous or they want to get rich or they want to get laid by the girls with bluebells in their hair...
When everything works best, it's not because you chose writing, but because writing chose you. It's when you're mad with it. When it's stuffed in your ears, nostrils, under your finger nails.
It's when there's no hope but that.
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
Often the best parts of life were when you
weren’t doing anything at all, just mulling it over,
chewing on it. I mean, say you figure that everything
is senseless, then it can’t be quite senseless
because you are aware that it’s senseless and your
awareness of senselessness almost gives it a sense.
You know what I mean? An optimistic pessimism.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Pulp)
“
Memory"
I’ve memorized all the fish in the sea
I’ve memorized each opportunity strangled
and
I remember awakening one morning
and finding everything smeared with the color of
forgotten love
and I’ve memorized
that too.
I’ve memorized green rooms in
St. Louis and New Orleans
where I wept because I knew that by myself I
could not overcome
the terror of them and it.
I’ve memorized all the unfaithful years
(and the faithful ones too)
I’ve memorized each cigarette that I’ve rolled.
I’ve memorized Beethoven and New York City
I’ve memorized
riding up escalators, I’ve memorized
Chicago and cottage cheese, and the mouths of
some of the ladies and the legs of
some of the ladies
I’ve known
and the way the rain came down hard.
I’ve memorized the face of my father in his coffin,
I’ve memorized all the cars I have driven
and each of their sad deaths,
I’ve memorized each jail cell,
the face of each new president
and the faces of some of the assassins;
I’ve even memorized the arguments I’ve had with
some of the women
I’ve loved.
best of all
I’ve memorized tonight and now and the way the
light falls across my fingers,
specks and smears on the wall,
shades down behind orange curtains;
I light a rolled cigarette and then laugh a little,
yes, I’ve memorized it all.
the courage of my memory.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire)
“
I see you drinking at a fountain with tiny
blue hands, no, your hands are not tiny
they are small, and the fountain is in France
where you wrote me that last letter and
I answered and never heard from you again.
you used to write insane poems about
ANGELS AND GOD, all in upper case, and you
knew famous artists and most of them
were your lovers, and I wrote back, it’ all right,
go ahead, enter their lives, I’ not jealous
because we’ never met. we got close once in
New Orleans, one half block, but never met, never
touched. so you went with the famous and wrote
about the famous, and, of course, what you found out
is that the famous are worried about
their fame –– not the beautiful young girl in bed
with them, who gives them that, and then awakens
in the morning to write upper case poems about
ANGELS AND GOD. we know God is dead, they’ told
us, but listening to you I wasn’ sure. maybe
it was the upper case. you were one of the
best female poets and I told the publishers,
editors, “ her, print her, she’ mad but she’
magic. there’ no lie in her fire.” I loved you
like a man loves a woman he never touches, only
writes to, keeps little photographs of. I would have
loved you more if I had sat in a small room rolling a
cigarette and listened to you piss in the bathroom,
but that didn’ happen. your letters got sadder.
your lovers betrayed you. kid, I wrote back, all
lovers betray. it didn’ help. you said
you had a crying bench and it was by a bridge and
the bridge was over a river and you sat on the crying
bench every night and wept for the lovers who had
hurt and forgotten you. I wrote back but never
heard again. a friend wrote me of your suicide
3 or 4 months after it happened. if I had met you
I would probably have been unfair to you or you
to me. it was best like this.
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
the best at war finally are those who preach peace
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
the best of you
I like more than you think.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Love Is a Dog from Hell)
“
I found the best thing
I could do
was just to type away
at my own work
and let the dying
die
as they always
have.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense)
“
The best people are the ones you never meet.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (More Notes of a Dirty Old Man: The Uncollected Columns)
“
There is always a man eager to explain my mental illness to me. They all do it so confidently, motioning to their Hemingway and Bukowski bookshelf as they compare my depression to their late-night loneliness. There is always someone that rejected them that they equate their sadness to and a bottle of gin (or a song playing, or a movie) close by that they refer to as their cure. Somehow, every soft confession of my Crazy that I hand to them turns into them pulling out pieces of themselves to prove how it really is in my head.
So many dudes I’ve dated have faces like doctors ready to institutionalize
and love my crazy (but only on Friday nights.)
They tell their friends about my impulsive decision making and how I “get them” more than anyone they’ve ever met but leave out my staring off in silence for hours and the self-inflicted bruises on my cheeks.
None of them want to acknowledge a crazy they can’t cure.
They want a crazy that fits well into a trope and gives them a chance to play Hero. And they always love a Crazy that provides them material to write about.
Truth is they love me best as a cigarette cloud of impossibility, with my lipstick applied perfectly and my Crazy only being pulled out when their life needs a little spice.
They don’t want me dirty, having not left my bed for days. Not diseased. Not real.
So they invite me over when they’re going through writer’s block but don’t answer my calls during breakdowns. They tell me I look beautiful when I’m crying then stick their hands in-between my thighs. They mistake my silence for listening to them attentively and say my quiet mouth understands them like no one else has.
These men love my good dead hollowness. Because it means less of a fighting personality for them to force out. And is so much easier to fill someone who has already given up with themselves.
”
”
Lora Mathis
“
it’s the same for most of us but one of the best things I learned was to stay out of the bars and also to try to stay off the street. I fail sometimes to stay off the streets but not too often. the finest place on earth to drink is in your own place and alone. you probably know all this. all right.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Living on Luck)
“
there is a place in the heart that will never be filled
a space
and even during the best moments and the greatest times
we will know it
we will know it more than ever
there is a place in the heart that will never be filled and
we will wait and wait
in that space.
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
the best poems it seems to me are written out of an ultimate need. and once the poem is written, the only need after that is to write another.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Come On In!: New Poems)
“
I thought about breakups, how difficult they were, but then usually it was only after you broke up with one woman that you met another. I had to taste women in order to really know them, to get inside of them. I could invent men in my mind because I was one, but women, for me, were almost impossible to fictionalize without first knowing them. So I explored them as best I could and I found human beings inside. The writing was only a residue. A man didn't have to have a woman in order to feel as real as he could feel, but it was good if he knew a few. Then when the affair went wrong he'd feel what it was like to be truly lonely and crazed, and thus know what he must face, finally, when his own end came.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Women)
“
Coming in from the factory or warehouse, tired enough, there seemed little use for the night except to eat, sleep and then return to the menial job. But there was the typewriter waiting for me in those many old rooms with torn shades and worn rugs, the tub and toilet down the hall, and the feeling in the air of all the losers who had proceeded me. Sometimes the typewriter was there when the job wasn't and the food wasn't and the rent wasn't. Sometimes the typer was in hock. Sometimes there was only the park bench. But at the best of times there was the small room and the machine and the bottle. The sound of the keys, on and on, and shouts: 'HEY! KNOCK THAT OFF, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE! WE'RE WORKING PEOPLE HERE AND WE'VE GOT TO GET UP IN THE MORNING!' With broom sticks knocking on the floor, pounding coming from the ceiling, I would work in a last few lines...
”
”
Charles Bukowski (The Roominghouse Madrigals: Early Selected Poems, 1946-1966)
“
The Genius Of The Crowd
there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average
human being to supply any given army on any given day
and the best at murder are those who preach against it
and the best at hate are those who preach love
and the best at war finally are those who preach peace
those who preach god, need god
those who preach peace do not have peace
those who preach peace do not have love
beware the preachers
beware the knowers
beware those who are always reading books
beware those who either detest poverty
or are proud of it
beware those quick to praise
for they need praise in return
beware those who are quick to censor
they are afraid of what they do not know
beware those who seek constant crowds for
they are nothing alone
beware the average man the average woman
beware their love, their love is average
seeks average
but there is genius in their hatred
there is enough genius in their hatred to kill you
to kill anybody
not wanting solitude
not understanding solitude
they will attempt to destroy anything
that differs from their own
not being able to create art
they will not understand art
they will consider their failure as creators
only as a failure of the world
not being able to love fully
they will believe your love incomplete
and then they will hate you
and their hatred will be perfect
like a shining diamond
like a knife
like a mountain
like a tiger
like hemlock
their finest art
”
”
Charles Bukowski (The Roominghouse Madrigals: Early Selected Poems, 1946-1966)
“
love poem to a stripper 50 years ago I watched the girls shake it and strip at The Burbank and The Follies and it was very sad and very dramatic as the light turned from green to purple to pink and the music was loud and vibrant, now I sit here tonight smoking and listening to classical music but I still remember some of their names: Darlene, Candy, Jeanette and Rosalie. Rosalie was the best, she knew how, and we twisted in our seats and made sounds as Rosalie brought magic to the lonely so long ago. now Rosalie either so very old or so quiet under the earth, this is the pimple-faced kid who lied about his age just to watch you. you were good, Rosalie in 1935, good enough to remember now when the light is yellow and the nights are slow.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Run With The Hunted: A Charles Bukowski Reader)
“
(My vanishing act)
when I got sick of the bar
and I sometimes did
I had a place to go:
it was a tall field of grass
an abandoned
graveyard.
I didn’t consider this to be a
morbid pastime.
it just seemed to be the best
place to be.
it offered a generous cure to
the vicious hangover.
through the grass I could see
the stones,
many were tilted
at strange angles
against gravity
as though they must
fall
but I never saw one
fall
although there were many of those
in the yard.
it was cool and dark
with a breeze
and I often slept
there.
I was never
bothered.
each time I returned to the bar
after an absence
it was always the same with
them:
“where the hell you
been? we thought you
died!”
I was their bar freak, they needed me
to make themselves feel
better.
just like, at times, I needed that
graveyard.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense)
“
The best way to think is not at all
”
”
Charles Bukowski (The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills)
“
one of Lorca’s best lines
is,
“agony, always
agony…”
think of this when you
kill a
cockroach or
pick up a razor to
shave
or awaken in the morning
to
face the
sun.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense)
“
The best part of a writer is on paper. The other part was usually nonsense.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Hollywood)
“
the best writers have said very little and the worst, far too much.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Betting on the Muse)
“
We are paper thin. We exist by chance between the percentages, temporarily. And this is the best and the worst part, the time factor. And there’s nothing you can do about it. You can sit on top of a mountain and meditate for decades and nothing will change. You can change yourself to be acceptable, but maybe this is wrong. Perhaps we think too much. Feel more, think less.
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
The best of you
I like more than you think.
the others don't count
except that they have fingers and heads
and some of them eyes and most of them legs and all of them
good and bad dreams
and a way to go.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Love Is a Dog from Hell)
“
Often the best parts of life were when you weren't doing anything at all, just mulling it over, chewing on it. I mean, say that you figure out that everything is senseless, then it can't be quite senseless because you are aware that it's senseless and your awareness of senselessness almost gives it sense. You know what I mean? An optimistic pessimism.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Pulp)
“
So we call upon the author to explain
(Doop doop doop doop dooop)
Our myxomatoid kids spraddle the streets, we've shunned them from the greasy-grind The poor little things, they look so sad and old as they mount us from behind I ask them to desist and to refrain And then we call upon the author to explain (Doop doop doop doop dooop)Rosary clutched in his hand, he died with tubes up his nose
And a cabal of angels with finger cymbals chanted his name in code
We shook our fists at the punishing rain And we call upon the author to explain (Doop doop doop doop dooop)
He said everything is messed up around here, everything is banal and jejune
There is a planetary conspiracy against the likes of you and me in this idiot constituency of the moon
Well, he knew exactly who to blame
And we call upon the author to explain
(Doop doop doop doop dooop)
Prolix! Prolix! Nothing a pair of scissors can't fix!
Prolix! Prolix! Nothing a pair of scissors can't fix!(Doop doop doop doop dooop) Well, I go guruing down the street, young people gather round my feet Ask me things, but I don't know where to start They ignite the power-trail ssstraight to my father's heart And once again I call upon the author to explain (Doop doop doop doop dooop ...)We call upon the author to explain Who is this great burdensome slavering dog-thing that mediocres my every thought? I feel like a vacuum cleaner, a complete sucker, it's fucked up and he is a fucker But what an enormous and encyclopaedic brain
I call upon the author to explain
(Doop doop doop doop dooop ...) Oh rampant discrimination, mass poverty, third world debt, infectious diseease
Global inequality and deepening socio-economic divisions Well, it does in your brain And we call upon the author to explain (Doop doop doop doop dooop ...) Now hang on, my friend Doug is tapping on the window (Hey Doug, how you been?) Brings me back a book on holocaust poetry complete with pictures Then tells me to get ready for the rain And we call upon the author to explain (Doop doop doop doop dooop ...) I say prolix! Prolix! Something a pair of scissors can fix
Bukowski was a jerk! Berryman was best!
He wrote like wet papier mache, went the Heming-way weirdly on wings and with maximum pain We call upon the author to explain (Doop doop doop doop dooop ...) Down in my bolthole I see they've published another volume of unreconstructed rubbish "The waves, the waves were soldiers moving". Well, thank you, thank you, thank you
And again I call upon the author to explain Yeah, we call upon the author to explain Prolix! Prolix! There's nothing a pair of scissors can't fix!
”
”
Nick Cave
“
to the whore who took my poems
some say we should keep personal remorse from the
poem,
stay abstract, and there is some reason in this,
but jezus:
12 poems gone and I don’t keep carbons and you have
my
paintings too, my best ones; it’s stifling:
are you trying to crush me out like the rest of them?
why didn’t you take my money? they usually do
from the sleeping drunken pants sick in the corner.
next time take my left arm or a fifty
but not my poems:
I’m not Shakespeare
but sometimes simply
there won’t be any more, abstract or otherwise;
there’ll always be money and whores and drunkards
down to the last bomb,
but as God said,
crossing his legs,
I see where I have made plenty of poets
but not so very much
poetry.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Essential Bukowski: Poetry)
“
a gold pocket
watch
my grandfather was a tall German
with a strange smell on his breath.
he stood very straight
in front of his small house
and his wife hated him
and his children thought him odd.
I was six the first time we met
and he gave me all his war medals.
the second time I met him
he gave me his gold pocket watch.
it was very heavy and I took it home
and wound it very tight
and it stopped running
which made me feel bad.
I never saw him again
and my parents never spoke of him
nor did my grandmother
who had long ago
stopped living with him.
once I asked about him
and they told me
he drank too much
but I liked him best
standing very straight
in front of his house
and saying "hello, Henry, you
and I, we know each other.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Love Is a Dog from Hell)
“
Thank god for Vegas. Seriously.
A lobotomy wasn’t as effective as a weekend three hours of Red Bull away (from LA, not Pismo) where I wore the thinnest pinned stilettos, gambled like a sweaty degenerate mobster in black loafers, drank like Amy Winehouse and Charles Bukowski’s baby, and snorted throat-dripping lines of coke in a Hard Rock Hotel bathroom with four new best friends. I’d giddily rub off any one of those from the to-do list I wrote in eyeliner on my hotel bathroom mirror.
”
”
Christy Heron (Unrequited - One Girl, Thirteen Boyfriends, and Vodka.)
“
An Almost Made Up Poem
I see you drinking
at a fountain
with tiny blue hands,
no, your hands are not tiny
they are small,
and the fountain is in France
where you wrote me that last letter and
I answered
and never heard from you again.
You used to write insane poems
about ANGELS AND GOD,
all in upper case,
and you knew famous artists
and most of them were your lovers,
and I wrote back,
it’ all right,
go ahead,
enter their lives,
I’ not jealous because we’ never met.
We got close once in New Orleans,
one half block,
but never met,
never touched.
So you went with the famous
and wrote about the famous,
and, of course, what you found out
is that the famous are worried
about their fame –– not the beautiful
young girl in bed with them,
who gives them that,
and then awakens in the morning
to write upper case poems
about ANGELS AND GOD.
We know God is dead,
they’ told us,
but listening to you
I wasn’t sure.
Maybe it was the upper case.
You were one of the best female poets
and I told the publishers and editors:
“Her, print her, she’ mad but she’ magic.
There’ no lie in her fire.”
I loved you like a man loves a woman
he never touches,
only writes to,
keeps little photographs of.
I would have loved you more
if I had sat in a small room
rolling a cigarette and listened to you
piss in the bathroom,
but that didn’ happen.
Your letters got sadder.
Your lovers betrayed you.
Kid, I wrote back, all lovers betray.
It didn’ help.
You said you had a crying bench
and it was by a bridge
and the bridge was over a river
and you sat on the crying bench
every night
and wept for the lovers
who had hurt and forgotten you.
I wrote back but never heard again.
A friend wrote me of your suicide
3 or 4 months after it happened.
If I had met you
I would probably have been unfair to you
or you to me.
It was best like this.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Love Is a Dog from Hell)
“
With pronounced crowds around him - towns rowdy with loud shouting - without pouting childishly, while making his case soundly, he announced it quite proudly (mouth smiling undoubtedly (without clouds of doubt frowning)): 'See, this wild thing about me: I don't live life without me. So, how now shall you crown me? No need to bow down for me, or drown me in salary, or go tout my mastery (like an ounce is astounding); or oppositely, clown me, and just sound like a mouse squeak. Though none are better than me, no one's ever less than me; and it rings out hourly, like a vow surrounding me, a thousand pound pact to me, an infinite galaxy (that fits in this house of me (as if it's my fallacy (like 'limitless boundaries' (within this reality)))) - it's what gets the best of me - my ground and my gravity, as once said by Bukowski, 'I've never met another man I'd rather be.
”
”
Criss Jami
“
There is a place in the heart that will never be filled a space. And even during the best moments and the greatest times we will know it We will know it more that ever. There is a place in the heart that will never be filled and we will wait and wait in that place.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense)
“
There is enough treachery, hatred, violence, Absurdity in the average human being To supply any given army on any given day. AND The Best At Murder Are Those Who Preach Against It. AND The Best At Hate Are Those Who Preach LOVE AND THE BEST AT WAR —FINALLY—ARE THOSE WHO PREACH PEACE Those Who Preach GOD NEED God Those Who Preach PEACE Do Not Have Peace. THOSE WHO PREACH LOVE DO NOT HAVE LOVE BEWARE THE PREACHERS Beware The Knowers. Beware Those Who Are ALWAYS READING BOOKS Beware Those Who Either Detest Poverty Or Are Proud Of It BEWARE Those Quick To Praise For They Need PRAISE In Return BEWARE Those Quick To Censure: They Are Afraid Of What They Do Not Know Beware Those Who Seek Constant Crowds; They Are Nothing Alone Beware The Average Man The Average Woman BEWARE Their Love Their Love Is Average, Seeks Average But There Is Genius In Their Hatred There Is Enough Genius In Their Hatred To Kill You, To Kill Anybody. Not Wanting Solitude Not Understanding Solitude They Will Attempt To Destroy Anything That Differs From Their Own Not Being Able To Create Art They Will Not Understand Art They Will Consider Their Failure As Creators Only As A Failure Of The World Not Being Able To Love Fully They Will BELIEVE Your Love Incomplete AND THEN THEY WILL HATE YOU And Their Hatred Will Be Perfect Like A Shining Diamond Like A Knife Like A Mountain LIKE A TIGER LIKE Hemlock Their Finest ART
”
”
Charles Bukowski (The Pleasures of the Damned)
“
Unaccountably we are alone
forever alone
and it was meant to be
that way,
it was never meant
to be any other way –
and when the death struggle
begins
the last thing I wish to see
is
a ring of human faces
hovering over me –
better just my old friends,
the walls of my self,
let only them be there.
I have been alone but seldom
lonely.
I have satisfied my thirst
at the well
of my self
and that wine was good,
the best I ever had,
and tonight
sitting
staring into the dark
I now finally understand
the dark and the
light and everything
in between.
Peace of mind and heart
arrives
when we accept what
is:
having been
born into this
strange life
we must accept
the wasted gamble of our
days
and take some satisfaction in
the pleasure of
leaving it all
behind.
Cry not for me.
Grieve not for me.
Read
what I’ve written
then
forget it
all.
Drink from the well
of your self
and begin
again.
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
Real America, in honor of the hellhound, our beloved Bukowski
You hate America, no, not at all, I love it so much that I can say obvious truths that they themselves do not want to accept. If I criticize myself all the time, why would I stop criticizing others? A poem in honor of the only sincere American, Bukowski. The myth of America tells us of the land of freedom, founded by descendants of intelligent and puritanical Europeans. It's all a load of crap, no, it's the land of slavery, my friends, not just in the sense of slavery of African descendants, but of mental slavery. Yes, the land of the alienated. Eden, created by Angels. This is all a load of crap. Real America, Real America, Strong America, came from the indigenous tribes, from the toil of blacks and the industrious mentality of descendants of Europeans, all lazy, violent and who wanted to get fat like pigs, without worrying about anything. Dirty America that produces clean America, sold in the movies. Why lazy? Well, they don't like to make a lot of effort, and this indolence produces innovation. Is that why they are so creative? Well, they are creative in order to pay well the brains of other nations who go to work there. They knew that numerous wars and constant friction were much worse than anything else and cost money. So? Well, then, let's create a land where everyone can get fat, rich and kill each other, but only as long as the general profit of society increases. Let's sell the excess food, weapons and our gourmet culture to other peoples. It worked. But let's not fool ourselves. America is Golden on the outside and dark on the inside. America is the country of weapons, drugs, fantasies and lies. Above all, lies. See, the mafias that operated there to supply the demand for alcohol, prohibited in order to maintain the pure "spirit" of the drunken bourgeoisie, were all called mafias of other nationalities. But they were all Americans. America is geography, not history or ethnicity. You are an American because of your ties to this immense land blessed by God. Is that what these bastards have done? They have turned their own pain into art and sold it to us in the movies. The weapons, yes, they have to be good and they have to kill quickly. Why? Because Americans are lazy and don't like anything that lasts long. Even wars have to be fought in other countries and if they are too exhausting, they lose their Hollywood shine, so we have to abandon Saigon. Fatness, that is another thing that best represents America. Americans are all obese. Well, at least you can't help but notice them. They are, well, heavy people, especially the Karens. I love Karens, I'm a male Karen, you know. And as for drugs, well, that's the most interesting part. It's the country that consumes them the most, why? Well, maintaining the American dream requires a lot of mescaline. Fat drug addicts with guns sticking out of their own toilets. The toilets in America must hide everything we really want to know. I will probably never get a visa there, thanks to this poem. Still, you can't deny that my writing is anthological. God bless all the Americas. Please don't blow me up, I have poetic license to write these words.
”
”
Geverson Ampolini
“
It was best to stay away from other writers and just do your work…
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
People are the best show in the world, and you don't have to even pay for the ticket.
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
Your best men die in alleys under a sheet of paper while your worst men get statues in parks for pigeons to shit upon for centuries.
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
I’ve never been lonely. I’ve been in a room — I’ve felt suicidal. I’ve been depressed. I’ve felt awful — awful beyond all — but I never felt that one other person could enter that room and cure what was bothering me…or that any number of people could enter that room. In other words, loneliness is something I’ve never been bothered with because I’ve always had this terrible itch for solitude. It’s being at a party, or at a stadium full of people cheering for something, that I might feel loneliness. I’ll quote Ibsen, “The strongest men are the most alone.” I’ve never thought, “Well, some beautiful blonde will come in here and give me a fuck-job, rub my balls, and I’ll feel good.” No, that won’t help. You know the typical crowd, “Wow, it’s Friday night, what are you going to do? Just sit there?” Well, yeah. Because there’s nothing out there. It’s stupidity. Stupid people mingling with stupid people. Let them stupidify themselves. I’ve never been bothered with the need to rush out into the night. I hid in bars, because I didn’t want to hide in factories. That’s all. Sorry for all the millions, but I’ve never been lonely. I like myself. I’m the best form of entertainment I have. Let's drink more wine!
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
I have been alone but seldom lonely. I have satisfied my thirst at the well of my self and that wine was good, the best I ever had, and tonight sitting staring into the dark I now finally understand the dark and the light and everything in between. Peace of mind and heart arrives when we accept what is: having been born into this strange life we must accept the wasted gamble of our days and take some satisfaction in the pleasure of leaving it all behind. Cry not for me. Grieve not for me. Read what I’ve written then forget it all. Drink from the well of your self and begin again.
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
I will always love Charles Bukowski. I adore the raw honesty in his work. No frills, he just said it. The best artists are gloriously naked.
”
”
Lioness DeWinter
“
And, in a strange way, this is liberating. We no longer need to give a fuck about everything. Life is just what it is. We accept it, warts and all. We realize that we’re never going to cure cancer or go to the moon or feel Jennifer Aniston’s tits. And that’s okay. Life goes on. We now reserve our ever-dwindling fucks for the most truly fuck-worthy parts of our lives: our families, our best friends, our golf swing. And, to our astonishment, this is enough. This simplification actually makes us really fucking happy on a consistent basis. And we start to think, Maybe that crazy alcoholic Bukowski was onto something. Don’t try.
”
”
Mark Manson (The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life)
“
He’d ended up with the best piece of ass in town.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Post Office)
“
I’d often found it funny how the only reason that writers of self-help books were rich and famous was because of selling their self-help books. Whereas, if there was any truth to these books, the person would have to be rich and famous before writing the book and even then the advice in it would be subjective at best. But then people were stupid. And bad taste, as Bukowski said, created many more millionaires than good taste. If you wanted a good example of people’s bad taste, all you needed to do was to consider the most popular book of all time—the Bible.
”
”
Keijo Kangur (The Nihilist)
“
fingernails; nostrils; shoelaces
the gas line is leaking, the bird is out of the
cage, the skyline is dotted with vultures;
Benny finally got off the stuff and Betty got a job as a waitress;
the chimney sweep was quite delicate
and giggled up through the
soot.
I walked miles through the city and saw
nothing as a giant claw ate at my
stomach and the inside of my head felt
airy as if I was about to go
mad.
it's not so much that nothing means
anything but more that it keeps meaning
nothing.
there's no release, just gurus and self-
appointed gods and hucksters, stupid intellectuals.
the more people say, the less there is
to say.
even the best books are sawdust to
the brain.
I watch the boxing matches and take
notes on futility.
the gate springs open again
and there are the beautiful silks
riding against the sky.
such a sadness: everything trying to
break through into
blossom.
everyday should be a miracle instead
of a machination.
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
at their best, there is gentleness in Humanity.
some understanding and, at times, acts of
courage
but all in all it is a mass, a glob that doesn't rea
Charles Bukowski
”
”
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