Charles Bukowski was a German-born American novelist, short story writer, and poet. Belonging to the Beat generation, his works stand out for their marginal language and his dirty, exhibitionist style. For a reason they nicknamed him “thedamn writer“.
His family moved to United States of America when Bukowski was three years old. As a young man he decided to study journalism and did various jobs, but he never graduated He surrendered to a life of alcoholism and vagrancy. From those days his first poems and books were born, which were published in the 1940s.
The first novel he wrote, Postman, is considered an autobiography of his time in the postal service. The book has him as the protagonist Henry ChinaskyHe alter ego that appears in all his subsequent worksexcept for the pulp.
Bukowski was noted for the use of fringe language in his works.Bukowski’s work is summarized in six published novels, nine collections of short stories, and twenty collections of short stories poems. After his death in 1994, unreleased material from the last “damn writer“North American.
The best poems of the novelist Charles Bukowski
1) So you want to be a writer?
If it doesn’t come out burning inside you, despite everything, don’t do it. Unless it comes naturally from your heart, your mind, your mouth and your gut, don’t do it. If you have to sit for hours staring at your computer screen or typewriter searching for words, don’t do it. If you do it for money or fame, don’t do it. If you do it because you want women in your bed, don’t do it. If you have to sit down and rewrite it over and over again, don’t. If just the thought of doing it makes you tired, don’t do it. If you’re trying to write like everyone else, forget it.
If you have to wait for it to come roaring out of you, wait patiently. If you never get angry, do something else.
If you have to read it to your wife, girlfriend, boyfriend, parents, or anyone else first, 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, boring and pretentious, don’t let your self-love consume you. The libraries of the world yawn to go to bed with these people. Don’t be one of them. Do not do it. Unless it shoots out of your soul like a rocket, unless standing still will drive you to madness, suicide, or murder, don’t do it. Unless the sun inside you is burning your insides, don’t do it. When the time really comes, and if you are chosen, it will happen on its own and will continue to happen until you die or until he in you dies. There is no other way. And there never was.
2) Oh yeah!
There are worse things / than being alone / but it often takes decades / to realize / and more often / when this happens / it’s too late / and there is nothing worse / than / too late.
3) They are everywhere
The smells of tragedy are everywhere, they get up in the morning and start to find things wrong.
And they sink into anger, an anger that lasts until they go to bed, and even there they writhe in insomnia, unable to put the small obstacles they have encountered out of their minds.
They are against it, it’s a conspiracy. And because they are constantly angry, they feel like they are always right.
You see them in traffic honking like savages at the slightest infraction, complaining and spreading insults.
You feel them in the queues of banks, supermarkets, cinemas, they press on your back, they trample on you, they are impatient with fury.
They are everywhere and in everything, those violently unhappy souls.
In reality they are afraid, because they always want to be right they lash out incessantly… it is an evil, a disease of that race.
The first of them I saw was my father, and since then I have seen a thousand fathers waste their lives in hatred, throw it into the blind well and scream wildly.
4) The laughing heart
Your life is your life, don’t let it be bullied into submission, be careful, there are ways out.
There is a light somewhere, it may not be much light but defeat the darkness
be careful, the gods will offer you opportunities, know them, seize them
You can’t defeat death, but sometimes you can defeat it in life, and the more often you learn to do so, the more light there will be.
your life is your life, know that while you have it
You are wonderful, the gods are waiting to delight in you.
5) Roll the die
If you’re going to try, go through with it. Otherwise you won’t even start.
If you’re going to try, go through with it. This can mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives, jobs and perhaps your sanity.
Go to the end. This may mean not eating for 3 or 4 days. That might mean freezing on a park bench. This can mean prison. This can mean ridicule, ridicule, loneliness… Loneliness is a gift. Others are proof of your persistence, that is, how much you really want to do it. And you will do it, despite the rejections and disadvantages, and it will be better than anything you ever imagined.
If you’re going to try, go through with it. There is no other feeling like it. You will be alone with the gods and the nights will be lit by fire.
Do it, do it, do it. Just do it. Until the end, until the end.
You will lead life directly to the perfect laugh. It’s the only good fight there is.
6) blue bird
There’s a little bluebird in my heart that wants to get out but I’m hard on it, I tell it to stay there, I won’t let anyone see you.
There’s a bluebird that wants to come out but I pour whiskey on it and swallow cigarette smoke, and the whores and waiters and grocery store clerks don’t know it’s in there.
There’s a little bluebird in my heart that wants to get out but I’m hard on it, I tell him to stay over there, do you want to cause me trouble? Do you want my works? Do you want the sales of my books in Europe to decrease?
There’s a little bluebird in my heart that wants to come out but I’m too smart, I only let it out sometimes at night when everyone is sleeping. I tell him I know you’re there, don’t be sad.
Then I put it back and he sings a little in there, I didn’t let him die completely and we sleep together like this with our secret pact and it’s so tender it can make a man cry, but I don’t cry, do you cry?
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.