Sunday, July 25, 2010

favorite Bukowski poem

Charles Bukowski was a writer of stories, novels, and poems. He is my very favorite writer and this is my favorite poem which is not in any of his poetry collections but in a book of letters, Living on Luck: Selected Letters 1960s-1970s Volume 2. There's no real title to it, but it was apparently written for someone named Katherine.

you are like sunlight
sunlight walking around.

you don't know how good
you are.
you play with my seriousness,
make me laugh.

when you comb your hair
all the gods come down
from the mountain
and watch

you are the woman
all women should have
been.

I ache with disbelief and
yearning

no matter how you turn
your body
or what you say
it is the perfect diamond
the perfect cut
the perfect glow

and when you get the blues
I get the blues
because I don't want you
to get the blues

in my life
I've told two other
women that I loved
them

I wouldn't say it to
you

one of those women
died
and another died
in another way

if I never see you again
I will always carry you
inside
outside

on my fingertips
and at brain edges

and in centers
centers
centers
of what I am of
what remains.

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