Today I feel like hearing once again (I have posted it here before, maybe even twice...) Charles Bukowski's 'The Laughing Heart' because it is such a classic, the kind of poem that embeds itself in your psyche once you hear it and reverberates around there endlessly. And also, because it's Bukowski's birthday today, 16 August 1920.
Like Bukowski's other poems, it is simple yet full of wisdom, and unlike most of them, it is unabashedly optimistic. The short film of it above is pretty cool, read appropriately, by Tom Waits.
Enjoy.
Like Bukowski's other poems, it is simple yet full of wisdom, and unlike most of them, it is unabashedly optimistic. The short film of it above is pretty cool, read appropriately, by Tom Waits.
Enjoy.
*Email subscribers can click here to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEbIuDuW7l8
The Laughing Heart - Charles Bukowski
your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is a light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous.
the gods wait to delight
in you.
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