If I had a few minutes, I could flip through any Bukowski collection on my desk and find you a great quote. Something accessible. Something wry. Something pained, something hilarious. A verse that careens about the page in longing or madness, but in a diguise of plain clothes. I could find you poetry incognito: words that move the reluctant, or anyone who complains about meter and abstractions, the detached "elitism" of poetry. Read this:
"there is a loneliness in the world so great
that you can see it in the slow movement of
the hands of a clock.
people so tired
mutilated
either by love or no love."
There is a reason why we're still reading Charles Bukowski, even if Modest Mouse thinks he's an asshole. And today, August 16th, would have been his 90th birthday. To mark the occasion, I'm asking for your favorite Bukowski quote. Submit one in the comments and I'll send you a complimentary copy of The Continual Condition, Ecco's latest posthumous collection (limited to the first 15). Take a swig of whiskey and get started...
I've been so
down in the mouth
lately
that sometimes when I
bend over to
lace my shoes
there are
three tongues.
Posted by: Miss Liberty | August 16, 2010 at 03:33 PM
One of my favorites (of many):
"The shortest distance between two points is often unbearable."
Posted by: Gabriel Lundeen | August 16, 2010 at 03:35 PM
Simple, but has ALWAYS been my favourite...
"what matters most is how well you walk through the fire"
Posted by: Jen Albaugh | August 16, 2010 at 03:49 PM
"dogs and angels are not
very far apart"
— Charles Bukowski (The People Look Like Flowers At Last: New Poems)
Posted by: ColleenFL | August 16, 2010 at 04:00 PM
"The nine-to-five is one of the greatest atrocities sprung upon mankind. You give your life away to a function that doesn't interest you. This situation so repelled me that I was driven to drink, starvation, and mad females, simply as an alternative."
Posted by: Katie | August 16, 2010 at 04:01 PM
“It's possible to love a human being if you don't know them too well.”
Posted by: Tim Veilleux | August 16, 2010 at 04:27 PM
Humanity, you never had it to begin with.
Posted by: pearl | August 16, 2010 at 04:37 PM
"You begin saving the world by saving one man at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics."
Posted by: SJWhipp | August 16, 2010 at 04:39 PM
"Drinking is an emotional thing. It joggles you out of the standardism of everyday life, out of everything being the same. It yanks you out of your body and your mind and throws you against the wall. I have the feeling that drinking is a form of suicide where you're allowed to return to life and begin all over the next day. It's like killing yourself, and then you're reborn. I guess I've lived about ten or fifteen thousand lives now."
Posted by: C | August 16, 2010 at 04:45 PM
Genius might be the ablity to say a profound thing in a simple way.
Posted by: ellie | August 16, 2010 at 05:11 PM
"Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must live."
Posted by: Chadleespinks | August 16, 2010 at 07:18 PM
"It was better for me when I could imagine greatness in others, even if it wasn't always there."
(The Captain is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship)
Posted by: Lori (TNBBC) | August 16, 2010 at 08:21 PM
"I wish to weep
but sorrow is
stupid.
I wish to believe
but belief is a
graveyard."
Posted by: sixtyspink | August 16, 2010 at 09:29 PM
The shortest distance between two points is often unbearable.
Posted by: NFL Jerseys | August 17, 2010 at 08:17 AM
“Sometimes you just have to pee in the sink.”
Posted by: Rachel Smith | August 17, 2010 at 09:25 AM
"there is a loneliness in the world so great
that you can see it in the slow movement of
the hands of a clock.
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