The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Thu 6/1/06)

[RetroLounge]

Here is one in celebration of today marking my 16th year of Sobriety...

I certainly do not miss the old days...

As Crazy As I Ever Was

drunk and writing poems
at 3 a.m.

what counts now
is one more
tight pussy

before the light
tilts out

drunk and writing poems
at 3:15 a.m.

some people tell me that I'm
famous.

what am I doing alone
drunk and writing poems at
3:18 a.m.?

I'm as crazy as I ever was
they don't understand
that I haven't stopped hanging out of 4th floor
windows by my heels-
I still do
right now
sitting here

writing this down
I am hanging by my heels
floors up:
68, 72, 101,
the feeling is the
same:
relentless
unheroic and
necessary

sitting here
drunk and writing poems
at 3:24 a.m.

Charles Bukowski

********************

RL

If you have a request for a certain Poet, post their name in the thread and I will find a poem by them and post it...

if you want to see some of my poetry, see the blog at:
http://www.myspace.com/retropaul

[miss_american_pie]

1. Congrats!

A sobriety poem...



MUSIC IN THE MORNING
When I think of the years he drank, the scars
on his chin, his thinning hair, his eye that still weeps
decades after the blow, my knees weaken with gratitude
for whatever kept him safe, whatever stopped
the glass from cracking and shearing something vital,
the fist from lowering, exploding an artery, pressing
the clot of blood toward the back of his brain.
Now, he sits calmly on the couch, reading,
refusing to wear the glasses I bought him,
holding the open book at arm's length from his chest.
Behind him the windows are smoky with mist
and the tile floor is pushing its night chill
up through the bare soles of his feet. I like to think
he survived in order to find me, in order
to arrive here, sober, tired from a long night
of tongues and hands and thighs, music
on the radio, coffee-- so he could look up and see me,
standing in the kitchen in his torn t-shirt,
the hem of it brushing my knees, but I know
it's only luck that brought him here, luck
and a love that had nothing to do with me,
except that this is what we sometimes get if we live
long enough, if we are patient with our lives.
--Dorianne Laux

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. My dear miss_american_pie!

Wow, this poem is truly wonderful.....

It fits someone I know.....

And love......

Thank you for it!

:hug:

[miss_american_pie]

3. You are welcome

:hug:

[RetroLounge]

5. I keep looking for her books

Haven't found any yet.

Wonderful poem, thanks...

RL

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. My dear RetroLounge.......

I've been looking for you all day.....

Wondering if somehow I'd missed your poetry thread.....

But, no......here it is.....late in the day! :bounce: :bounce:


And it is wonderful too.....Bukowski certainly is terrific.....

Thank you.......


:loveya: :hug:

[tigereye]

6. there is something so compelling

and disturbing about Bukowski - one showing of Barfly sort of sums up the worst aspects of it. Yuk.

Congrats on your sobriety Retro! How is the bookstore venture coming? I never heard.... :)