Tom Waits reads Charles Bukowski's "the Laughing Heart"

[Lorax7844]

I love Tom Waits. I love this Bukowski. Just gorgeous.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va1t6a0zCkQ
The Laughing Heart by 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.

-- by Charles Bukowski

[Democracyinkind]

1. Either your link is fucked up or I'm really too stupid to get it.

[Lorax7844]

2. my link is fucked hang a second

:(

[Lorax7844]

3. OMG sorry

:blush:

It's a cute kitty but no where near as gorgeous as the correct link.

[Democracyinkind]

4. Cool. I was scared there for a minute that I - a rabid admirer of old Bukowski - wasn't in on a joke

[Lorax7844]

8. how horrifying to click on that link, thinking you were going

to see Waits reading Bukowski.

For those who love cute kitties here is the kitty video I posted by mistake:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnagRjxp7v4

[Lorax7844]

11. Which book is "the Laughing Heart" in?

i have put off on reading Bukowski because of how dark everyone says his work is. I'm cool with dark, but vile, seedy, underbelly of humanity dark I can only take in small doses. Waits can be dark but just the right amount of dark for me. Waits LOVES people, does Bukowski?

Aftet this I am definitely buying the book with this poem.

[Democracyinkind]

19. Bukowski loved people too. He just never learned to show it.

His interest in the world and his surroundings clearly speaks for that. Granted, on a level of personal experience, I guess there's alot of people who would disagree with that statement, holding the position that he was mostly anti-social. But for me that anti-social aspect always seemed to stem from his failure to feel home anywhere, to make a meaningful connection to his parents, etc. Allot of the desperation in his writing seems like the desperation of someone who knows the worth of the human touch. I sometimes feel pretty much the same way, damning and hating the whole world yet craving and going mad for that invisible touch of other people.

the poem is from betting on a muse, if I am correct. I think it's postmortem, but I'm not sure. I really like the way Waits reads it.

[Lorax7844]

20. me too, Waits gets it. He knows how that poem is suppose to be read.

Waits is my favorite song writer ever. EVER.

I like the way you put it, it does take a loving soul to look at the people that no one wants to see.

thanks

[LooseWilly]

7. I liked the kitty... it was very dada...

Not that Bukowski would've approved...

[Lorax7844]

10. When I saw what I did I couldn't help but burst out laughing

I do love that kitty video, I laugh every time I watch it.

I had just mailed the link to my brother and forgot to recopy the correct link.

For those wanting a laugh go to the Waits link and then watch the kitty link and see what I posted by mistake.

[LooseWilly]

14. Hehe... I laughed too... but you posted Tom Waits reading one of the most "positive"

Bukowski things ever. I hope you don't mind, but I'm posting some other Bukowski shit. If you do mind, I also don't give a fuck... (you understand)

[Lorax7844]

18. i'm down, I don't mind.

I always figured he was a lot like Waits in subject matter and location. Growing up in LA must fuck with a kid, so much darkness and pain and broken dreams all around. just reading/listening to these is good but like Waits it hurts. Very visceral. From looking on the internet, one difference between the two is that I think that Waits loves people more.

[Lorax7844]

21. down as in "down with it", not as in sad

since we're talking Bukowski, I should have chosen my slang more clearly.

[LooseWilly]

23. hehe... I'd have to be pretty out of touch

to not realize what you meant by "I'm down."

And I figured you'd be down... if you were posting Tom Waits and Charles Bukowski stuffs.

If not... there'd be some words of awful in store... :+

[LooseWilly]

5. Surely that was not you...

Catullus, at the racetrack bar last Thursday?

[Democracyinkind]

6. Rec... You totally made my day .. Tom Waits really has a feeling for those poems. great post!

Rec'd

[Heidi]

9. Recommended.

:kick:

[LooseWilly]

12. Spain...

Trouble with Spain

[Lorax7844]

13. this one is nice/angry

Be Kind by Charles Bukowski
we are always asked
to understand the other person's
viewpoint
no matter how
out-dated
foolish or
obnoxious.
one is asked
to view
their total error
their life-waste
with
kindliness,
especially if they are
aged.
but age is the total of
our doing.
they have aged
badly
because they have
lived
out of focus,
they have refused to
see.
not their fault?
whose fault?
mine?
I am asked to hide
my viewpoint
from them
for fear of their
fear.
age is no crime
but the shame
of a deliberately
wasted
life
among so many
deliberately
wasted
lives
is.

[LooseWilly]

15. Ahh... better... positive still.. but the cynicism is starting to show...

Don't make me break out the books of his poetry and pick random stuff out and type it in... :+

[LooseWilly]

16. who in the Hell is Tom Jones?

who in the Hell Is Tom Jones?

[Lorax7844]

17. I just ordered Betting on the Muse

is that a good book to start with?

[LooseWilly]

24. Heh...the poetry is the poetry.

It's all.... poetry. It's some of the best poetry that I've ever come across... but it's still poetry.

It makes me want to write poetry.

I'm better at prose. A man's got to remember his limitations, or rise above them, probably while drunk.
A woman too.

I can make judgements on the prose novels. The poetry I leave it to each and every one and all to judge for themselves. It's a matter of appreciation for the form. Bukowski re-invented the form in a lot of ways (see the Catullus post on this thread). Whether that's good or bad depends on the audience.

Bukowski is probably the most approachable of all 20th century poets in English. More so even than Bob Dylan (assuming one grants the status of poetry to his music lyrics), or... well, I can't think of any other 20th Centruy poets... except Dylan Thomas, perhaps some Yeats.... and others even more esoteric/unconnected.

[Bluenorthwest]

22. I've got a bunch of Buk stuff in storage

Small books and drawings and such from back when they were new. Have not thought of them in many years.

[Bluenorthwest]

25. Thanks for posting this stuff...

I just went all Google on it and recalled that Crumb did the drawings that go with the Buk stuff. I have not thought of these things or those guys in years. Many of my friends were crazy for Buk, and he was the best of the poets going. Maybe the only one really, I have to say I kind of disliked most of the poetry out of LA at that time, and I did not pay as much attention to any of it as perhaps I should have.
Takes me back.

[Lorax7844]

27. glad to do it

:)

[rucky]

26. RBTM

Rec Before The Move

[AwakeAtLast]

28. I needed to read that right now

Thank you!

:pals: