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Question: Any thoughts/deductions/observatio… on this Bukowski poem!?
First published in 1961 when he was 41 years old (He died in 1994 at the age of 74)

Old Man, Dead in a Room
by Charles Bukowski

this thing upon me is not death
but it's as real
and as landlords full of maggots
pound for rent
I eat walnuts in the sheath
of my privacy
and listen for more important
drummers;
it's as real, it's as real
as the broken-boned sparrow
cat-mouthed, uttering
more than mere
miserable argument;
between my toes I stare
at clouds, at seas of gaunt
sepulcher!. !. !.
and scratch my back
and form a vowel
as all my lovely women
(wives and lovers)
break like engines
into steam of sorrow
to be blown into eclipse;
bone is bone
but this thing upon me
as I tear the window shades
and walk caged rugs,
this thing upon me
like a flower and a feast,
believe me
is not death and is not
glory
and like Quixote's windmills
makes a foe
turned by the heavens
against one man;
!.!.!.this thing upon me,
great god,
this thing upon me
crawling like snake,
terrifying my love of commonness,
some call Art
some call Poetry;
it's not death
but dying will solve its power
and as my grey hands
drop a last desperate pen
in some cheap room
they will find me there
and never know
my name
my meaning
nor the treasure
of my escape!.Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
This morning, I told the Martian Engineers to "Turn it on, regardless!."
We'll lose the funky look!.!.!.and the hand-crank!. We should be doing this over there!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

this thing upon me

thanks
thanks to you for the introduction!.!.!.!.!.
a magical mystery tourWww@QuestionHome@Com

if only he was heard!.!.!.!.

!.!.!.!.!.!.by the many!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Chuck at his most self-indulgent!.

He wrote here, why he drank, wouldn't you agree!?

He just couldn't come to terms with being alive!. He--or at least his writings--always remind me of a friend of mine!. She is crazier than a loon, has a heart of gold, and is deeply religious!. But sometimes, when it all gets too much for her, she screams and swears at her God of how much she hates Him, and what he's done to her!. Love/hate relationship, like Bukowski (and of course Chinaski), with God or Life or whatever you want to call it!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I think it's about the fact that after what he considered a worthless existence of drinking all day every day and screwing around with a woman who - though he loved - sucked the life blood out of him his writing, not the pissing blood and STDs would be what he was remembered for!.

I apologize for the run-on sentence - there's a 4 month old in my lap!.

Here's a picture for you Buk - sure you've seen it before, but it reminds me of you and your questions!.
http://www!.levee67!.com/bukowski/Www@QuestionHome@Com

"scratch my back and form a vowel"
is almost a con
Verb!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I think he, as a gifted poet, was answering your yesterday's question :
"What it means to be forgotten!?"

Thanks for sharing this treasure!Www@QuestionHome@Com

Only a master could state it so plainly,that ghost,that snake that far off eventual occurrence,and how it will reduce Us to steam, amid the gloom of the cheap rooms and the stench of the land lord there between his feet he finds life and leaves us with beauty!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Good stuff!.!.Bukaroo!.!.!.haven;t read a lot of his stuff!.!.I enjoyed it!.!.
he should have written stuff in tiny letters all over the pen!.!.maybe!.!.you know like the last last poem!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I feel he speaks of the anguish of a true poet,
like any true artist, the gift is a burden, sometimes more of a curse than a blessing!. The drive to create can eat like a cancer!. Sometimes, there is little peace within the mind of the gifted!.

I think he expresses this as only he can!.

maWww@QuestionHome@Com