⏳ So I have had quite some time hoping to start a youtube channel about poetry and reflections in general. I knew I wanted to start with Charles Bukowski because he was the writer that made me fall in love with poetry. The way he expresses himself is so raw, brutal, and real that it makes it almost impossible not to sink in his words. This poem in particular speaks to me deeply about how many of us give up life without even noticing, by falling into endless routines that control us and prevent us from feeling emotions such as love or joy.

What do you think this poem is about?

I'll be uploading more poetry videos every week.

Thanks for watching!


⏳ Some Bukowski’s Books:

Essential Bukowski: Poetry
https://amzn.to/3sDJhtn

Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame
https://amzn.to/3Et6MYO

The Last Night of the Earth Poems
https://amzn.to/3sHuopU

Ham On Rye: A Novel
https://amzn.to/3Z2ks6F

Post Office: A Novel
https://amzn.to/45HyIUM

Women: A Novel
https://amzn.to/3RawqsH

You Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense
https://amzn.to/3EwRwtK

Love is a Dog From Hell
https://amzn.to/3LaqFHQ


⏳ Editor:
Lorena Col
Here you can read her own poems: https://bit.ly/2Wds49V

⏳ Narrator
Tom O'bedlam
   / spokenverse  

⏳ Music
Sealed Letters by August Wilhelmsson

⏳ Poem
Dreamlessly from Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame
By Charles Bukowski

Old greyhaired waitresses
in cafes at night
have given it up,
and as I walk down sidewalks of
light and look into windows
of nursing homes
I can see that it is no longer
with them.
I see people sitting on park benches
and I can see by the way they
sit and look
that it is gone.

I see people driving cars
and I see by the way
they drive their cars
that they neither love nor are
loved
nor do they consider
sex. it is all forgotten
like an old movie.
I see people in department stores and
supermarkets
walking down aisles
buying things

and I can see by the way their clothing
fits them and by the way they walk
and by their faces and their eyes
that they care for nothing
and that nothing cares
for them.

I can see a hundred people a day
who have given up
entirely.
if I go to a racetrack
or a sporting event

I can see thousands
that feel for nothing or
no one
and get no feeling
back.
everywhere I see those who
crave nothing but
food, shelter, and
clothing; they concentrate
on that
dreamlessly.

I do not understand why these people do not
vanish
I do not understand why these people do not
expire
why the clouds
do not murder them
or why the dogs
do not murder them
or why the flowers and the children
do not murder them,
I do not understand

I suppose they are murdered
yet I can't adjust to the
fact of them
because there are so
many.
each day

each night,
there are more of them
in the subways and
in the buildings and
in the parks

they feel no terror
at not loving
or at not
being loved

so many many many
of my fellow
creatures.