37 Comments
User's avatar
Neil Barker's avatar

I like the references to the spiritless and dead-before-death gang. See so much of it these days. Once you recognize and see it, it truly can't be unseen.

Expand full comment
Jonathan Potter's avatar

A motivational halftime pep talk from Coach Hank.

Expand full comment
Writer Pilgrim by So Elite's avatar

A stanza full of questions! Never dared to have that many in one go. Loved this! We live in this.

Expand full comment
Constantine Markides's avatar

"baby, air and light and time and space

have nothing to do with it

and don’t create anything

except maybe a longer life to find

new excuses

for."

-bukowski, "air and light and time and space"

Expand full comment
Lisa B. Martin    zihuawriter's avatar

He tells it like it is.

Expand full comment
Kominka Life Japan's avatar

He told it like it is ... :-)

Expand full comment
Sara-lee's avatar

Average, basic people can be fine if pleasant and self-aware.

Some people are just simple and I don't think they can help it.

But when they need reassurance and even demand it from you,

or they walk around with a void,

an insatiable, internalized hollow and it expresses itself as domineering and tyrannical

that's what I take issue with.

a lot of them simply following the well-beaten path end up in corporate offices and I've had issues there, especially in majority female offices, in a 3rd world country.

If people would look there, they would see a lot of the ills of society brewing, It's so hidden in plain sight.

Expand full comment
A💗's avatar

He said we've met them and I think I'm one of them.

Expand full comment
Cynthia Steph Lim's avatar

And then there’s a whole other group of ppl who never feel like they’re doing enough when they’re doing literally everything

Expand full comment
fred el bekkay's avatar

Want to be free of that

Sure

I agree

...

I can’t imagine being complacent

I can’t even imagine anyone thinking about it

...

But by the way

Who are the cowards?

...

I don’t see many

...

It’s a little like climbing a peak

We can take the easy way to understand someone

Or the hard way

Bukowski took the easiest way

to understand the other

Expand full comment
Emitt's avatar

A young drunk, soon to die, handed me a book of poems by Bukowski. I did try to reason with the young drunk, to no avail. Charles paints with words of our human condition. We are all connected.

Expand full comment
Jonathan Foster's avatar

I understand Bukowskis frustration. I've felt it. But love poems can triumph...

I think some of you will love this:

https://jonathanfostersthecrow.substack.com/p/welcome-to-the-crow

Expand full comment
marilyn dyck's avatar

This explains why mostly nobody thinks any more. They have NOTHING TO THINK ABOUT… a tragic mass of ignorance…

Expand full comment
David Picariello's avatar

Bee righteous always looking inward. dave p

Expand full comment
Clarence Ewing's avatar

Bukowski rules. That's all to say. The antidote to our modern plague of stupid.

Expand full comment
Jane Farrell's avatar

Ouch.

Expand full comment
David Snider's avatar

We all have the fire to be free and authentic, but for many of us it just gets stomped down and stamped out. You have to risk everything, including your life, your heart and your sanity, to get to the places your true self once upon a time mapped out and set sail for.

Expand full comment