Poem by Bukowski

I discovered the poet Charles Bukowski a few years ago in a used bookstore in Brooklyn, NY.  I love used bookstores, for me it's like panning for gold.  I've never panned for gold but I'm quite certain the experience would feel the same.   Anyway, I had staked a claim and was in the process of digging through the finds when I spotted a book by a guy by the name of Charles Bukowski titled "Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way" I thought hmmm... this one might be a nugget worth saving.   My hunch was right, it turned out to be gold!   He can be somewhat course and crude but he's always brutally honest.   He doesn't "sugar coat" life.   He says it like it is.


nobody but you

nobody can save you but
yourself.
you will be put again and again
into nearly impossible
situations.
they will attempt again and again
through subterfuge, guise and
force
to make you submit, quit and/or die quietly
inside.

nobody can save you but
yourself
and it will be easy enough to fail
so very easily
but don't, don't, don't.
just watch them.
listen to them.
do you want to be like that?
a faceless, mindless, heartless
being?
do you want to experience
death before death?

nobody can save you but
yourself
and you're worth saving.
it's a war not easily won
but if anything is worth winning then
this is it.

think about it.
think about saving your self.
your spiritual self.
your singing magical self and
your beautiful self.
save it.
don't join the dead-in-spirit.

maintain your self
with humor and grace
and finally
if necessary
wager your life as you struggle,
damn the odds, damn the price.

only you can save your
self.

do it! do it!

then you'll know exactly what
I am talking about.

-Charles Bukowski