So You Want To Be A Writer- by Charles Bukowski - Page 4 - Writers Forum

11-16-2006, 06:59 PM

you must like sex then.

TsuTseQ · 11-16-2006, 07:03 PM

You're a mod ms. v, can't you insert the comment where I told you to?

Hodge · 11-16-2006, 07:05 PM

She's going to respond with, "I'll insert my comment, but not where you told me to..."

But I beat her to it.

11-16-2006, 07:59 PM

they tell me at moderation school that inserting anything anywhere without proper consent could turn out to be a punishable offense.

(eh? pretty good? eh?)

TsuTseQ · 11-16-2006, 08:25 PM

vodka, in moderation? Never.

Bika · 11-16-2006, 08:49 PM

Isn't it time this thread got back on topic, or locked, Ms Moderator?

dannyboy · 11-16-2006, 09:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ms. vodka

they tell me at moderation school that inserting anything anywhere without proper consent could turn out to be a punishable offense.

(eh? pretty good? eh?)

see we're back to the gel

as for pencil... I hate when it runs out of lead

and

do you use the trad pencil

or that silly modern things with the refillable leads?

Finally

its all a bit like jazz huh?

oh and Bika

we never left the topic.

keatsian · 12-08-2006, 10:49 PM

Excellent poem really. True if it doesnt come out of you, you better not 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."

Great piece! Charles Bukowski is right I think

huntingtonb · 12-19-2006, 08:44 PM

Yay, a Bukowski thread! He sometimes hung out at the Reno Room in Long Beach, CA It was a scuzzy little bar with velvet paintings and other kitsch decor. It opened at 6:00 a.m. and there was always a strange mix of old chronic alcoholics, clubbers who were still out from the night before, and garden variety tweakers looking for company and to take the edge off with booze.

This poem is one of my favorites. It's from his book Love is a Dog from Hell. I'd love to continue this thread by discussing Bukowski's work! Here's the poem:

I get many phonecalls now.
They are all alike.
"are you Charles Bukowski,
the writer?'
"yes" I tell them
and they tell me
that they understand
my writing
and some of them are writers
or want to be writers
and they have dull and
horrible jobs
and they can't face the room
the apartment
the walls
that night-
they want somebody to talk
to,
and they can't believe
that I can't help them
that I don't know the words
they can't believe
that often now
I double up in my room
grab my gut and say
"Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, not
again!"
they can't believe
that the loveless people
in the streets
the loneliness
the walls
are mine too.
and when I hang up the phone
they think I have held back my
secret.

I don't write out of
knowledge.
when the phone rings
I too would like to hear words
that might ease
some of this.

that's why my number's
listed.

Kathyrn · 01-31-2007, 02:03 PM

Gorgeous. I knew I was reading this thread for a reason.

Jolly McJollyson · 02-07-2007, 02:17 AM

Man, Bukowski is almost as shoddy a poet as Ginsberg (see: "America").

It's like he doesn't care about what constitutes imagery and simply revels in spittleshrieking cries from the pulpit. Oh wait, it's not "like" that at all. It is that.

He simply sickens me with his God-awful pomposity.

Prodigal Darkness · 02-22-2007, 08:36 AM

I agree with it totally. Not once have I had to search for a word in my mind. And I have never felt as if it was actually me who was doing the writing, ore the writing was writing its self. Poetry, whatever.

ruksak · 02-23-2007, 10:03 AM

The writing anyone likes is pure taste and incredibly personal. I adore Bukowski's work and when someone says he's rubbish, it's like someone saying my wife is ugly. I have a quick pop of anger and then think why should I friggin' care if you think the writers I like are no good/my wife is not attractive?

I do think that being dismissive of a writer based on one poem is tantamount to dismissing a whole story based on a single sentence though.

For me Bukowski represents a lot of things - he is possibly the best writer of underdogs I have ever come across, and whilst his writing style doesn't spill over with imagery and poetics, he is an incredible force. And, I would agree with him, in thinking that, if imagery and the like are thought to be the basic elements of a good writer, then 'don't write'.

Of course, this is all a personal opinion - in my body and mind it's right - in another person's - well, that's perhaps a job for a writer.

Edgewise · 03-26-2007, 08:18 PM

I agree with Bukowski wholeheartedly...granted, I am not a competely objective party, being that I agree with him on far more than just this poem.

heatherlouise · 03-27-2007, 02:56 PM

Quote:

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.

are you trying to make me scrap everything that i have ever wrote?? lol. i like dthe poem but not the message. everything needs work, whether you are the worlds best writer or . . . well . . .me, lol. it takes time and effort, peoples advice and lots of editing.
nice poem though,
Heather