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a poem about charles bukowski
after reading the first 50 or so pages of Haunted i was immediately reminded of one of my favorite poems. i thought i would share it with the rest of you. a lot of you young writers who think its cool to write like chuck should really take this into mind. i think that this poem should permanantly attached to all of the writers workshop boards and it should be posted everywhere so everyone who has ever written anything can read it. (if feel pretty strongly about this poem)
by the way: after reading sooooo many bad reviews on Haunted why do we all still feel compelled to read it?
just something to think about
SO YOU WANT TO BE A WRITER?
BY CHALRES BUKOWSKI
if it doesn't come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don't do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don't do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don't do it.
if you're doing it for money or
fame,
don't do it.
if you're doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don't do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don't do it.
if it's hard work just thinking about doing it,
don't do it.
if you're trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.
if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.
if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you're not ready.
don't be like so many writers,
don't be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don't be dull and boring and
pretentious, don't be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don't add to that.
don't do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don't do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don't do it.
when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.
there is no other way.
and there never was.
well i see ive been put im my place lalala i thought i was the only one who knew who bukowski was
lalala but...i am just sharing my thoughts...and my thought brought me from hanyed to this poem...and this forum is about sharing thoughts on art...and i just put 2 and 2 together...but i did not get 4...because apparently the whole world already has had the same thought that i have...or at least...that is what i get from your statement...188416 virgins go pop...once they go pop they arent virgins anymore...
[QUOTE=188416]read it about a million times. any writer who hasnt read it is a dumbass.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, you're right. Your statement is perfectly reasonable.
About the poem:
I don't really like the poem because to me it sounds overly pretentious. He describes the writer as a sort of magi or saint with supernatural talents or something, while, in reality, a writer is simply a storyteller, and most anyone can tell a story. Not everyone can tell a story eloquently, not anyone can keep his readers or listeners interested, and this is where we distinguish between good and bad writers. However, who is he to define the [I]only[/I] methods of writing. There are writers out there who take years to finish a short story. There are some who rewrite their story endlessly until it's perfect. It is indeed quite ostentatious to rule out anyone who is not an impulsive writer. Really, the more I think about this poem the more it seems dumb to me. That part about anyone who reads it first to his or her wife not being a writer - why? I'm sure Salinger, alone in his bunker somewhere in nowhere, who hasn't published anything for decades, regularly reads his stuff to his family if he deems it interesting. And that part about the motives, the beginning - again, why? Who cares what the motives are? What matters is what is being written and not why.
'course there was an essay in Stranger than Fiction which came off the same way.
Michael Moore did a chapter in one of his books called "Horatio Alger Must Die", which was a lot like Chuck's essay.
I, personally, love being told I'm worthless compared to people who "made it". Of course the only reason these people made it in the literary world is because a director did a good interpetation of his book. Except for Michael Moore, who's just a piece of shit anyway.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/Lazlosdead/completeLazloSig.jpg[/IMG]
[QUOTE=monosyllibalic]
by the way: after reading sooooo many bad reviews on Haunted why do we all still feel compelled to read it?
just something to think about
[/QUOTE]
I don't put any stock in reviews. If I'm interested in something, I check it out for myself. I don't like to be told what to think, do you?
have you heard the song Modest Mouse recorded called Bukowski? i think it's the best song on their latest album
“People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.”-Ralph Waldo Emerson
[QUOTE=marte]have you heard the song Modest Mouse recorded called Bukowski? i think it's the best song on their latest album[/QUOTE]
awesome song. they've been going very downhill lately, methinks. float on was cringesome.
my earlier statement was wank, clearly, bad mood i guess. whoops.
but still, i couldn't have been slagging off anyone in this thread because as soon as you open the thread you've read it.
and virgins go pop is a band name.
never heard of virgins go pop. but heres my quik little review on Haunted.
shock value was nothing compared to chucks other books. just starting to be expected. most of the stories were very bland and not very interesting. the poems were way to repeticious(?) and told me nothing about the characters. the story between the short stories was also repetitive. i know chuck uses a lot of repetition( and usually does a very good ) but he just overdid it in this book. my biggest problem was that nothing surprised me. after about 100 pages you knew that these people would do anything to become famous , and i just got tired of hearing about these people complain about wanting more attention than everyone else. i give it a
D
-its all been done before
-not his most original work
-stories lack excitement and surprise
+there were a few good short stories(the one with the sex dolls and the cpr doll)
-the story did not flow at all. it was very chunky and linear
-it downright bored me
-it was one of the books i wanted to just stop reading and just had to force myself to finish
Every poem about bukowski in a nutshell:
Speaks to you personally; not created for mass consumption. You either get it or you don't.
Simple interpretations of "I read it this many times" or "this many people read it before you" are simply, simplistic. Any writer can read it. Then again, you can simply open your door, throw a rock and hit a "writer". A "real" writer refrains not from thowing stones but from opening doors to throw them from.
To coin an ancient biker paradigm: For those who understand no explaination is necessary, for those who don't, no explaination is possible.
What can I say Monosylliabic? It's unfortunate that you didn't like [U]Haunted[/U]. I love it! Then again, I'm more into the whole short- fiction thing. Still, I'm interested in how you approach the craft of writing.
More to the point - it's hard not to respect anyone with an appreciation for Bukowski.
Without giving away too much about myself, here's my favorite Bukowski poem. I can read it again and again and still be amazed.
[U]TWO KINDS OF HELL [/U]
I sat in the same bar for 7 years, from 5 a.m.
(the day bartender let me in 2 hours early)
to 2 a.m.
sometimes I didn't even remember going back
to my room
it were as if I were sitting on the barstool
forever
I had no money but the drinks kept
arriving
to them I wasn't the bar clown
but the bar fool
but at times a fool will find a greater
fool to
admire him,
and,
it was a crowded
place
actually, I had a viewpoint: I was waiting for
something extraordinary to
happen
but as the years wasted on
nothing ever did unless I
caused it:
broken bar mirrors, a fight with a 7 foot
giant, a dalliance with a lesbian, many things
like the ability to call a spade a spade and to
settle arguments that I did not
begin and etc. and etc. and etc.
one day I just upped and left the
place
like that
and I began to drink alone and I found the company
quite all right
then, as if the gods were bored with my peace at
heart, knocks began upon my door: ladies
the gods had sent the ladies to the
fool
and the ladies arrived one at a time and when it ended with
one
the gods immediately--without allowing me any respite--sent
another
and each be.-an as a flash of miracle--even the bed--and the
good ended up
bad
my fault, of course, yes, that's what they told
me
but I remembered the 7 years in the bar, I hardly ever bedded
down with anybody
the gods just won't let a man drink alone, they are jealous of
his simple strength and salvation, they will send the lady
knocking upon that door
I remember all those cheap hotels, it were as if the women
were one: the delicate little rap on the wood and then:
"oh, I heard you playing that music on your radio...we're
neighbors, I'm down at 603 but I've never even seen you inthe hall..."
"come on in..."
and there go your balls and your sanctity, Men's Liberation,
they say, is not needed
and then you remember the bar
when you walked up behind the 7 foot giant and knocked his
cowboy hat off his head, yelling:
"I'll bet you sucked your mother's nipples until you were
12 years old!"
somebody in the bar saying: "hey, sir, forget it, he's a mental
case, he's an asshole, he doesn't know what he is
saying!"
"I know EXACTLY what I am saying and I'll say it again:
I'll bet you sucked..."
he won but you didn't die, not at all the way you died when the
gods arranged to get all those ladies knocking and you went for
the first flash of miracle
the other fight was more fair: he was slow, stupid and even a
little bit frightened and it went well for quite a good while,
just like with the ladies those gods
sent
the difference being, I thought I had a chance with the
ladies
This poem is not representative of his best work, me thinks.
FOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOOD
FOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOOD
FOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOOD
FOODFOODFOODFOODFOOD, Mirka?
Just for the record, I do still like Bukowski. I think he's a great stepping stone on to better literature. But, really, everyone should move on past him after a year or two.
As God as my witness...I thought turkeys could fly...
Just for the record, I do still like Bukowski. I think he's a great stepping stone on to better literature. But, really, everyone should move on past him after a year or two.
So he's like a gateway drug. First you start them off on the light stuff, just to get 'em hooked. Then move 'em onto the more serious stuff. Like Denis Johnson. You know what? Just skip Bukowski, and move onto Johnson directly. He even writes poetry. Or I guess you could take the Carver route, who also wrote poetry.
FOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOOD
FOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOOD
FOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOOD
FOODFOODFOODFOODFOOD, Mirka?
Just for the record, I do still like Bukowski. I think he's a great stepping stone on to better literature. But, really, everyone should move on past him after a year or two.
Agreed. I used to be obsessed with Bukowski, but now the more and more I read the more bland his stuff gets.
I think that the original poem about writing is just too negative. I liked it a lot when I read it years ago, but when you put in the context of where I am at today, it just seems really negative. And what a terrible idea to post it at the writer's workshop! That's practically the antithesis of what Chuck has to say about writing. While he does say you should not try to force your work, or write when you don't have an idea, he also seems to give off the impression that anyone can be a writer, and through things like the workshop is obviously trying to encourage would be writers to perfect their craft.
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