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Charles Bukowski reading his poem “Love.” That seems a fitting enough post for Valentine’s Day. Bukowski didn’t like holidays, chances are especially wasn’t a fan of this one, so this downtrodden little rumination on love seems like the only fitting thing to post today. Or maybe nothing at all would have been more fitting. But here’s Bukowski reading “Love” anyway. Okay, now I’m begging the question, forget it.
Below, a couple of fan made videos using audio from this reading. Enjoy, and good luck surviving the day.
“Now we’ll get back to the standard hard bullshit.”
“love,” by Charles Bukowski
love, he said, gas
kiss me off
kiss my lips
kiss my hair
my fingers
my eyes my brain
make me forgetlove, he said, gas
he had a room on the 3rd floor,
rejected by a dozen women
35 editorsand half a dozen hiring agencies,
now I’m not saying he was any
goodhe turned on all the jets
without lighting them
and went to bedsome hours later a guy on his
way to room 309
lit a cigar in the
halland a sofa flew out the window
one wall shivered down like wet sand
a purple flame waved 40 feet high in the air
the guy in bed
didn’t know or care
but I’d have to say
he was pretty good
that day.
