“Go to Tibet
Ride a camel.
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.
Marry a woman with one leg and shave with a straight razor.
And carve her name in her arm.
Brush your teeth with gasoline.
Sleep all day and climb trees at night.
Hold your head under water and play the violin.
Do a belly dance before pink candles.
Kill your dog.
Run for mayor.
Live in a barrel.
Break your head with a hatchet.
Plant tulips in the rain.
But don't write poetry. “
- Charles Bukowski
I find myself unable to defend Charles Bukowski, as he has broken his own dictum of abstaining from writing poetry. This poem was intended to be friendly advice to a lot of young men, but instead it appears to be a schizophrenic to-do list. However, it is genuinely hysterical, so perhaps this bizarre advice is permissible. Really, it seems very few people take him seriously in my experience. I haven’t read much of his writing at all aside from Dinosauria, We, but based on that, I would imagine he doesn’t actually warrant the kind of disapproval he seems to get.
I find myself unable to defend Charles Bukowski, as he has broken his own dictum of abstaining from writing poetry. This poem was intended to be friendly advice to a lot of young men, but instead it appears to be a schizophrenic to-do list. However, it is genuinely hysterical, so perhaps this bizarre advice is permissible. Really, it seems very few people take him seriously in my experience. I haven’t read much of his writing at all aside from Dinosauria, We, but based on that, I would imagine he doesn’t actually warrant the kind of disapproval he seems to get.
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