Poetry in motion- Charles Bukowski

I'm a huge fan of Charles Bukowski, through his brutally blunt words and at times dare I say crass writing, he is able to capture human emotion and infuse life into his characters. Ever since I read the Post office years ago I've be hooked.


Here is all time favourite 'Charles Bukowski poem : So you want to be a writer?  Captured in film so beautifully!!

Art is a lie

Met up with a friend yesterday and had a very interesting conversation about the correlation between creativity/creative process and destruction/despair.He is also is a creative person and dabbles in film making,photography,writing and art amongst other things.I have to add, that meeting him yesterday was like a breath of fresh air,I had only met him once before in Goa about two years ago for only a couple of minutes ,but we stayed in touch through various social media platforms.It's so nice to met someone who isn't wearing a mask,is totally honest,full of optimism and willing to share so much of himself and his experiences with someone he barely knows.[i guess I don't were masks either so conversation flowed effortlessly]

A couple of drinks down and conversation as always, took a turn for the more personal, where we were both discussing about how break ups have this overwhelming ability to elicit extreme emotions,in his case it would have such a crippling impact that he wouldn't be able to work at that moment of time[not always] and ironically for me it was a more of a cathartic release of sorts.The creative process however, was tear stained and painful,but the resultant art that came out of those moments of vulnerability,would almost be like telling a lie to anyone who saw them without knowing what I was going through.I wouldn't want to take back or regret having felt so intensely at that moment in time, but we were both wondering about creating art but at what price?As creative artists or beings do have have to hit rock bottom,break even, to then be able to rise from the ashes and create art and if so would our lives just be a scattering of emotional turmoil for eternity?

"We all know Art is not the truth,

Art is a lie that makes us realise the truth."

                                                     - Pablo Picasso

Charles Bukowski in his blatantly honest,cut and dry style has this to say.

My eternal tryst with Charels Bukowski

The Post Office was my first Charles Bukowski book, I remember being caught in a confusing whirlwind of emotions at the time,it was blunt,honest and at times crass even. I felt a mixture of awe at the refreshing  honesty in his writing and somewhere this underlying sense of macabre and ghoulishness it left me with when i done with the book.It was one of those book i read through the night from start to finish.I've been hooked ever since.

Here's are a few of my all time favourite poems [if it sounds familiar its probably because you seen it in  the Levis-Go forth campaign,a brilliantly shot ad that capture his words so beautifully]

THE LAUGHING HEART

Your life is your life
Don't let it be clubbed into dank submission.

Be on the watch.
There are ways out.
There is a light somewhere.
It may not be much light but
It beats the darkness.
Be on the watch.
The gods will offer you chances.
Know them.
Take them.
You can't beat death but
You can beat death in life, sometimes.
And the more often you learn to do it,
The more light there will be.
Your life is your life.
Know it while you have it.
You are marvelous
The gods wait to delight
in you.

-Charles Bukowski

This is another one that struck a chord,


SO YOU WANT TO BE A WRITER

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. 

-Charles Bukowski



NO HELP FOR 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
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