He wrote about 12 poems a day for decades and decades and so has a grand ocean of poetry waiting in libraries. I have read a lot of Bukowski poems. More than anyone else's poetry its fair to say. It's for the rare discovery like this that I sift through millions of words, thousands of sentences, and hundreds of poems, reading reading reading reading.
And I will continue flipping the pages at 4 in the morning semi-interested in the written words & woes of other men - but I will really just be passing time waiting for another one like this.
Is this not life? Is life just not years and years and years of traveling on a lone fast train through a deep fog, accidentally stumbling upon transient moments where the greatest poetry of god and life read clear like laughter?
The Crunch
too much too little
too fat
too thin
or nobody.
laughter or
tears
haters
lovers
strangers with faces like
the backs of
thumb tacks
armies running through
streets of blood
waving winebottles
bayoneting and fucking
virgins.
an old guy in a cheap room
with a photograph of M. Monroe.
there is a loneliness in this world so great
that you can see it in the slow movement of
the hands of a clock
people so tired
mutilated
either by love or no love.
people just are not good to each other
one on one.
the rich are not good to the rich
the poor are not good to the poor.
we are afraid.
our educational system tells us
that we can all be
big-ass winners
it hasn't told us
about the gutters
or the suicides.
or the terror of one person
aching in one place
alone
untouched
unspoken to
watering a plant.
people are not good to each other.
people are not good to each other.
people are not good to each other.
I suppose they never will be.
I don't ask them to be.
but sometimes I think about
it.
the beads will swing
the clouds will cloud
and the killer will behead the child
like taking a bite out of an ice cream cone.
too much
too little
too fat
too thin
or nobody
more haters than lovers.
people are not good to each other.
perhaps if they were
our deaths would not be so sad.
meanwhile I look at young girls
stems
flowers of chance.
there must be a way.
surely there must be a way that we have not yet
thought of.
who put this brain inside of me?
it cries
it demands
it says that there is a chance.
it will not say
"no."
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
"Kevin didn't know he was shot. The iPod was how he found out."
I found this crazy story through StumbleUpon at Flickr.
The following is the tale from the person who posted the picture.
"The armor stopped the bullet.
The iPod was how Kevin Garrad found out he was shot. This is the real story.
Kevin said he got into the fight with the insurgent and afterwards he did not know he was even shot. He said he returned to his bunk after the patrol, put on his earbuds and began to clean his weapon.
He said: “you get into a ritual out there.”
No music came on. He dug around in the pockets where he kept the iPod and pulled out the twisted hunk of metal that is in the pictures. He said that was how he found out that he had been shot during the fight. He was happy that his armor worked.
He said the upgraded armor he was wearing could stop the AK-47 round. It was not the newest armor that is in Iraq now, but it was an upgrade. This was his second iPod that he had brought to Iraq. The first had been damaged earlier and the store would not replace it, even with the additional warranty he purchased.
The pictures are what happens when an AK-47 bullet hits an iPod.
He’s talked to Apple and is happy that they sent him another iPod. He’s gone through two already. If any others send him iPods he’ll put them in care packages back to friends in his unit who don’t have them."
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiki/445618364/in/pool-appleusers/
Monday, March 24, 2008
The Not So Good Shepherd
I finally saw The Good Shepherd last night. I had high hopes for a movie about the history of the CIA directed by Robert De Niro with an all-star cast of Joe Pesci, Alec Baldwin, Robert De Niro, Angelina Jolie, Michael Gambon, John Turturro, and Matt Damon.
Unfortunately, the trailer was considerably better than the movie (watch it below).
The particular failings are too numerous and would be a waste of time to expound here. But the key flaw in The Good Shepherd was that there were really three plots going on simultaneously, .i.e., the history of the CIA, the story of Edward Wilson - both retrospectives - all the while pieces of a current plot were unraveling.
I understand the idea was to show different perspectives of the CIA at different times in its evolution and tie them together with Edward Wilson. However De Niro did not achieve this effectively.
The plots instead of supporting each other and flowing together to create a multi-dimensional tale, clashed with one another, fragmenting and ultimately canceling out the most interesting and potent aspects of the movie. It lacked a much needed constant from which the meandering events could resolve themselves into an intelligent whole.
If De Niro tried to tackle just the history of the CIA, or just the life of Edward Wilson, or just a cutting-edge spy tale - something more valuable may have come from the Good Shepherd project. But De Niro was overambitious. He overextended the limits of the story. He overextended the normal human tolerance for a lengthy non-sequential motion picture (it was about 3 hours long).
If you haven't seen this movie don't look at the following quotes. They are better heard than read.
These were my favorite lines in the movie.
Richard Hayes: I remember a senator once asked me. When we talk about "CIA" why we never use the word "the" in front of it. And I asked him, do you put the word "the" in front of "God"?
--
Joseph Palmi: Let me ask you something... we Italians, we got our families, and we got the church; the Irish, they have the homeland, Jews their tradition; even the niggers, they got their music. What about you people, Mr. Wilson, what do you have?
Edward Wilson: The United States of America. The rest of you are just visiting.
Unfortunately, the trailer was considerably better than the movie (watch it below).
The particular failings are too numerous and would be a waste of time to expound here. But the key flaw in The Good Shepherd was that there were really three plots going on simultaneously, .i.e., the history of the CIA, the story of Edward Wilson - both retrospectives - all the while pieces of a current plot were unraveling.
I understand the idea was to show different perspectives of the CIA at different times in its evolution and tie them together with Edward Wilson. However De Niro did not achieve this effectively.
The plots instead of supporting each other and flowing together to create a multi-dimensional tale, clashed with one another, fragmenting and ultimately canceling out the most interesting and potent aspects of the movie. It lacked a much needed constant from which the meandering events could resolve themselves into an intelligent whole.
If De Niro tried to tackle just the history of the CIA, or just the life of Edward Wilson, or just a cutting-edge spy tale - something more valuable may have come from the Good Shepherd project. But De Niro was overambitious. He overextended the limits of the story. He overextended the normal human tolerance for a lengthy non-sequential motion picture (it was about 3 hours long).
If you haven't seen this movie don't look at the following quotes. They are better heard than read.
These were my favorite lines in the movie.
Richard Hayes: I remember a senator once asked me. When we talk about "CIA" why we never use the word "the" in front of it. And I asked him, do you put the word "the" in front of "God"?
--
Joseph Palmi: Let me ask you something... we Italians, we got our families, and we got the church; the Irish, they have the homeland, Jews their tradition; even the niggers, they got their music. What about you people, Mr. Wilson, what do you have?
Edward Wilson: The United States of America. The rest of you are just visiting.
The Trailer
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