From Charles, Some Truth

[jackshoegazer]

60 Yard Pass

most people don't do very well and I get discouraged with
their existence, it's such a waste: all those
bodies, all those lives
malfunctioning: lousy quarterbacks, bad waitresses,
incompetent carwash boys and presidents, cowardly
goal-keepers
inept
garage mechanics
bumbling tax accountants and
so forth

yet

now and then

I see a single performer doing something with a
natural excellence

it

can be
a waitress in some cheap cafe or a 3rd string
quarterback
coming off the bench with 24 seconds on the clock
and completing that winning
60 yard pass

which lets me believe that
the possibility of the miracle is here with us
almost every day

and I'm glad that now and then
some 3rd string quaterback
shows me the truth of that belief
whether it be in science, art, philosophy,
medicine, politics, and/or etc.

else I'd shoot all the lights out of
this fucking city
right now

~Charles Bukowski

Comments

[kiwikat.livejournal.com]

having never read burkowski i now understand what some of the hubub is all about. i may have to get some at the library when i finish your book.

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

Yes, he's quite good. I was suprised I liked him so much. He's so visceral.

[nonexsistent.livejournal.com]

My all time favorite author.

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

I just discovered him this year, or rather I knew of him but hadn't read anything until this year. I was quite impressed. He's so simple yet viscerally honest.

[antarcticlust.livejournal.com]

Is this how you became my friend? Or, rather, how I became your friend and subsequently friended you?

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is :) I've read a bit of bukowski, but never this one, and this is suddenly my favorite of his works :)

[antarcticlust.livejournal.com]

That one's from "War All the Time", which is possibly my favorite collection of his poems, although "Love is a Dog From Hell" is also great. www.smog.net has a searchable database of over 5k poems, and some interesting FBI files from Hanks's early days.

<3

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

I've read Post Office and Love is a Dog and like one or two other collections by him. I'll have to remember April 14th as the day I invaded your life and stole your Bukowski ;)

[antarcticlust.livejournal.com]

Dear Jeremy in April,

Please don't run away. I promise good things will happen. Would falling in love with me be such a bad thing?

Love,

Jacquelyn in September