from his "book" The Captain is out to lunch and the Sailors have
taken over the Ship" which was basically some kind of journal
Bukowski was asked to keep to turn into a book.... the book was
also illustrated by a famed illustrator, Robert Crumb
i like his work... a little bit depressing but can't seem to put it
down.. tales of depression, and darkness of the soul.. fighting it
yet yielding to it at times.. showing the imperfection of humanity
perhaps..
anyway, to his work...
==================================================
Sept 26th 1991 12:16AM
Got the proofs of the new book today. Poetry. Martin says it wil
run to about 350 pages. I think the poems hold up. Uphold. I am an
old train steaming down the track.
Took me a couple of hours to read. I've had some practice doing
this thing. The lines roll free and say about what I want them to
say. Now the influence on myself is myself.
As we live, we all get caught and torn by various traps. Nobody
escapes them. Some even live with them. The idea is to realize that
a trap is a trap. If you are in one and you don't realize it, then
you're finished. I believe that I have recognised most of my traps
and I have written about them. Of course, all of writing doesn't
consist of writing about traps. There are other things. Yet, some
might say that life is a trap. Writing can trap you. Some writers
tend to write what has pleased their readers in the past. Then they
are finished. Most writers' creative span is short. They hear the
accolades and believe them. There is only one final judge of
writing and that is the writer. When he is swayed with his fame and
his fortune, you can float him down the river with the turds.
Each new line is a beginning and has nothing to do with any lines
which preceded it. We all start new each time. And, of course, it
isn't all that holy either. The world can live much easier without
writing than without plumbing. And some places in the world have
very little of either. Of course I'd rather live without plumbing
but I'm sick.
There's nothing to stop a man from writing unless that man stops
himself. If a man truly desires to write, then he will. Rejection
and ridicule will only strengthen him. And the longer he is held
back the stronger he will become, like a mass of rising water
against a dam. THere is no losing in writing; it will make your
toes laugh as you sleep; it will make you stride like a tiger; it
will fire the eye and put you face to face with Death. You will die
a fighter, you will be honored in hell. The luck of the word. Go
with it, send it. Be the Clown in the Darkness. It's funny. It's
funny. One more new line....
