the poet is not a tramp
Posted: December 30th, 2016, 5:36 pm
Bukowski wrote that Charley Chaplin was a fake
in one of his poems, it was in a context
of things he disliked, a funny list to be sure
but this is all in the sense of what makes
a poet a poet, Bukowski apparently
was not impressed with the little tramp
that twenties comedian actor
Hank was not taken in by the Hollywood
persona, or maybe he saw Charley as a kind of
anti-poet, with his character jerking our sympathy
a poet worth their salt, is trying to do something else
that is also why Bukowski hated Mickey Mouse
some of the other things he disliked are symbolic
in that so many things in this world that are
fake or ersatz or meant to distract us
everything is a kind of obstacle to the poet
the poet is always aware of the shit hitting the fandango
Bukowski wanted us to know how hard a poet has to be
in that a poem is anything but an advertisement for reality
a poet is not a phony clown or a tragic tramp
a poet is a sponge for the hard rain that's gonna fall
we don't find our words in a museum, or a church
we haunt the libraries of forgotten material
looking for what the control clowns don't want you to find
a poet's words are forged in the furnace of the poem
each poem is like a found object at the end of history
each object is like some ornate alien technology
that has only one purpose, to break you through
to the cosmic source
in one of his poems, it was in a context
of things he disliked, a funny list to be sure
but this is all in the sense of what makes
a poet a poet, Bukowski apparently
was not impressed with the little tramp
that twenties comedian actor
Hank was not taken in by the Hollywood
persona, or maybe he saw Charley as a kind of
anti-poet, with his character jerking our sympathy
a poet worth their salt, is trying to do something else
that is also why Bukowski hated Mickey Mouse
some of the other things he disliked are symbolic
in that so many things in this world that are
fake or ersatz or meant to distract us
everything is a kind of obstacle to the poet
the poet is always aware of the shit hitting the fandango
Bukowski wanted us to know how hard a poet has to be
in that a poem is anything but an advertisement for reality
a poet is not a phony clown or a tragic tramp
a poet is a sponge for the hard rain that's gonna fall
we don't find our words in a museum, or a church
we haunt the libraries of forgotten material
looking for what the control clowns don't want you to find
a poet's words are forged in the furnace of the poem
each poem is like a found object at the end of history
each object is like some ornate alien technology
that has only one purpose, to break you through
to the cosmic source
)
)
