'Palm Leaves' read by RMPALM LEAVES
at exactly 12:00 midnight
1973-74
Los Angeles
it began to rain on the
palm leaves outside my window
the horns and firecrackers
went off
15. Confessionwaiting for death
like a cat
that will jump on the
bed
I am so very sorry for
my wife
A radio with gutsit was on the 2nd floor on Coronado Street
I used to get drunk
and throw the radio through the window
while it was playing, and, of course,
it would break the glass in the window
and the radio would sit there on the roof
still playing
and I'd tell my woman,
Bluebirdв моем сердце – синяя птица,
она хочет, чтобы о ней узнали,
но я суров с ней,
говорю: оставайся там, я никому
не позволю увидеть
тебя.
в моем сердце – синяя птица,
Consummation of griefI even hear the mountains
the way they laugh
up and down their blue sides
and down in the water
the fish cry
and the water
is their tears.
I listen to the water
Dinosauria, weBorn like this
Into this
As the chalk faces smile
As Mrs. Death laughs
As the elevators break
As political landscapes dissolve
As the supermarket bag boy holds a college degree
As the oily fish spit out their oily prey
EarthquakeAmericans don’t know what tragedy is
a little 6.5 earthquake can set them to chattering
like monkeys
a piece of chinaware broken,
the Union Rescue Mission falls down
6 a.m.
they sit in their cars
fan letterI been readin’ you for a long time now,
I just put Billy Boy to bed,
he got 7 mean ticks from somewhere,
I got 2,
my husband, Benny, he got 3.
some of us love bugs, others hate
them.
Benny writes poems.
Farewell, Foolish ObjectsFarewell, Foolish Objects
I have lain in bed all day
but I have written one poem
and I am up now
looking out the window
and like a novelist might say
drunk: the clouds are coming at me
like scullery maids with dishpans
Friendly Advice to a Lot of Young MenGo to Tibet.
Ride a camel.
Read the bible.
Dye your shoes blue.
Grow a beard.
Circle the world in a paper canoe.
Subscribe to The Saturday Evening Post.
Chew on the left side of your mouth only.
helping the oldI was standing in line at the bank today
when the old fellow in front of me
dropped his glasses (luckily, within the
case)
and as he bent over
I saw how difficult it was for
him
and I said, “wait, let me get
L'amour dure trois ans- Мистер Буковски, что такое любовь?
- Это что-то вроде тумана утром. Когда вы просыпаетесь, за долго до рассвета. Он исчезает быстро, так и чувства сгорает.
- Правда?
- Я убежден.
raina symphony orchestra.
there is a thunderstorm,
they are playing a Wagner overture
and the people leave their seats under the trees
and run inside to the pavilion
the women giggling, the men pretending calm,
wet cigarettes being thrown away,
Wagner plays on, and then they are all under the
StyleStyle is the answer to everything.
A fresh way to approach a dull or dangerous thing
To do a dull thing with style is preferable to doing a dangerous thing without it
To do a dangerous thing with style is what I call art
Bullfighting can be an art
Boxing can be an art
Loving can be an art
The Genius of the CrowdВероломства, ненависти жестокости нелепости в любом среднем человеке
хватит, чтобы хоть сейчас снарядить целую армию
и в убийствах лучшие те, кто проповедует против них
и в ненависти лучшие те, кто проповедует любовь
а в войне, наконец, лучшие те, кто проповедует мир
те, кто проповедует бога, нуждаются в нем
The Last Days of the Suicide KidI can see myself now
after all these suicide days and nights,
being wheeled out of one of those sterile rest homes
(of course, this is only if I get famous and lucky)
by a subnormal and bored nurse…
there I am sitting upright in my wheelchair…
almost blind, eyes rolling backward into the dark part of my skull
looking
The Laughing Heartyour 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 mockingbirdthe mockingbird had been following the cat
all summer
mocking mocking mocking
teasing and cocksure;
the cat crawled under rockers on porches
tail flashing
and said something angry to the mockingbird
which I didn’t understand.
the mosthere comes the fishhead singing
here comes the baked potato in drag
here comes nothing to do all day long
here comes another night of no sleep
here comes the phone wringing the wrong tone
here comes a termite with a banjo
here comes a flagpole with blank eyes
here comes aa cat and a dog wearing nylons
the poetry readingat high noon
at a small college near the beach
sober
the sweat running down my arms
a spot of sweat on the table
I flatten it with my finger
blood money blood money
my god they must think I love this like the others
the proud, thin, dyingI see old people on pensions in the
supermarkets and they are thin and they are
proud and they are dying
they are starving on their feet and saying
nothing. long ago, among other lies,
they were taught that silence was
bravery. now, having worked a lifetime,
inflation has trapped them. they look around
the soldier, his wife and the bumI was a bum in San Francisco but once managed
to go to a symphony concert along with the well—dressed people
and the music was good but something about the
audience was not
and something about the orchestra
and the conductor was
not,
although the building was fine and the
The tragedy of the leavesI awakened to dryness and the ferns were dead,
the potted plants yellow as corn;
my woman was gone
and the empty bottles like bled corpses
surrounded me with their uselessness;
the sun was still good, though,
and my landlady's note cracked in fine and
undemanding yellowness; what was needed now
we ain't got no money, honey, but we got raincall it the greenhouse effect or whatever
but it just doesn't rain like it used to.
I particularly remember the rains of the
depression era.
there wasn't any money but there was
plenty of rain.
it wouldn't rain for just a night or
a day,
wordsMy dear,
Find what you love and let it kill you.
Let it drain you of your all. Let it cling onto your back and weigh you down into eventual nothingness.
Let it kill you and let it devour your remains.
For all things will kill you, both slowly and fastly, but it’s much better to be killed by a lover.
~ Falsely yours
Charles Bukowski