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Like Bukowski
by Joe CramerYou have to be in love to write poetry,
Or at least in a lot of like.
I sip a beer, stroke a cigar,
Grab a pen and begin to write
Like Bukowski.
Except that I think he used a typewriter,
I think.
I watch people walk
Down the sidewalk of Houma Boulevard
Headed over to Veterans.
I puff the cigar almost nonstop,
Except to sip the warm beer.
The words don't flow,
This love I know
Is nonexistent.
I get tired of waiting for the day, the time
When my words will have some sort of meaning,
When they will all be mine.
You have to be in love to write poetry
Raymond Carver once told me.
I thought I was, or at least in love
With something, or someone.
It never works out.
I wonder what's left, what will happen
To the rest of my life. 09/14/1988 Author's Note: The funny thing was is that I had recently been reading the poetry of Raymond Carver, and was instead thinking of Charles Bukowski..... go figure.....
Posted on 01/05/2008
Copyright © 2026 Joe Cramer
| Member Comments on this Poem |
| Posted by Laurie Blum on 01/05/08 at 09:11 PM I really like the narrative format of this poem, it sort of reminds me of the dialogue in an old Humphrey Bogart movie... it provides alot to think about |
| Posted by Alisa Js on 01/06/08 at 03:33 AM Ah yes, the infamous Bukowski.... didn't he also use yellow pads?
lol... nicely done.. aloha to you from out here, this side of paradise..alisa ;-) |
| Posted by Jeffrey Parren on 10/21/08 at 04:39 PM and oddly enough I have been immersed in Bukowski of late, and finding time in my business of life to have nearly completed four collections of poetry in less than a month, while finding time to read Billy Collins. (GO FIGURE!) I am finding their differences refreshing and enlightening, and yes it was a typewriter he "punched" and sometimes could only hear in between cigar puffs and beer sips. I always wonder what it would be like to live the way he did, and in that there would be much to write about I can only assume...finding love that you didnt know existed or you had I suppose. ~JPP |
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