That's a beauty.
April 13, 2016 10:09 AM Subscribe
I am not a Bukowski fan, but the lines
posted by sallybrown at 11:00 AM on April 13, 2016 [2 favorites]
be on the watch.have been something like a life thesis for me since I read this beautiful and just-corny-enough poem many years ago. It is so un-Bukowski that I wonder sometimes whether he wrote it as a joke. Either way, thanks for it.
the gods will offer you chances.
posted by sallybrown at 11:00 AM on April 13, 2016 [2 favorites]
One of my all-time favorites. That notion, "your life is your life", can seem so radical sometimes--but it's so important.
posted by stellaluna at 11:25 AM on April 13, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by stellaluna at 11:25 AM on April 13, 2016 [1 favorite]
Thank you.
posted by Paris Elk at 11:59 AM on April 13, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Paris Elk at 11:59 AM on April 13, 2016 [1 favorite]
I haven't been a big fan of Bukowski since my formative years, and find poetry in general fairly insufferable, but still, this is one of my favourites:
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going
to let anybody see
you.
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he's
in there.
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
I say, I know that you're there,
so don't be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you?
-CB
posted by turbid dahlia at 9:47 PM on April 13, 2016 [2 favorites]
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going
to let anybody see
you.
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he's
in there.
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
I say, I know that you're there,
so don't be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you?
-CB
posted by turbid dahlia at 9:47 PM on April 13, 2016 [2 favorites]
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posted by chavenet at 10:14 AM on April 13, 2016