(16 August 1920 – 9 March 1994 / Andernach)

What do you think this poem is about?

Alone With Everybody

the flesh covers the bone
and they put a mind
in there and
sometimes a soul,
and the women break
vases against the walls
and the men drink too
much
and nobody finds the
one
but keep
looking
crawling in and out
of beds.
flesh covers
the bone and the
flesh searches
for more than
flesh.

there's no chance
at all:
we are all trapped
by a singular
fate.

nobody ever finds
the one.

the city dumps fill
the junkyards fill
the madhouses fill
the hospitals fill
the graveyards fill

nothing else
fills.


Anonymous submission.

Submitted: Thursday, January 01, 2004


Read poems about / on: women, city, sometimes, fate, alone, woman

Comments about this poem (Alone With Everybody by Charles Bukowski )

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  • Kevin Gibbens (3/19/2012 11:06:00 PM)

    Anybody else see a Buddhist connection/message in this one?

    18 person liked.
    29 person did not like.
  • Sam Aleks (3/17/2012 1:45:00 AM)

    few people seem to understand that Bukowski could write traditional poetry, he just chose not to. He spoke for the comman LA man, i think the people who live there would agree.

    21 person liked.
    4 person did not like.
  • Assorted Thoughts (12/31/2011 8:08:00 PM)

    Nihilism just needed a positive/negative spin to be embraced by many
    Quite the feat of an intelligent man to pull off such task
    Nicely done

    4 person liked.
    7 person did not like.
  • Christian Middleton (7/23/2010 12:26:00 PM)

    Celine Charcoal...i seriously doubt that your work is any better than Bukowski's, in fact, i doubt that you even come relatively close to scratching the surface of his level of skill.

    42 person liked.
    5 person did not like.
  • Lbowes71@gmail.com Bowes (6/27/2010 7:58:00 PM)

    The outlook of the speaker is bleak in that he believes that we are destined to look for love or 'the one' to somehow make us feel full-or complete. He recognizes that we have a need for flesh-contact. The fact that we idealize love makes us search for it. We want to make a connection with someone, but we seem to have this idea that we will somehow be filled up by it. He points out the things that are inevitable to fill-just as it is inevitable that we look for 'the one'. He claims this doesn't exist-we are doomed to wander for the want of it-unfulfilled-but we still crave flesh. Need it even still. We should be able to connect with out feeling that we need to be filled-need 'the one'-and be okay.

    24 person liked.
    6 person did not like.
  • James Faughner (6/15/2010 12:15:00 AM)

    Is it that easy to judge someone whom you've never met
    and say things about their work
    when they will never lose...
    40 plus years of Published work
    and a place in History?

    6 person liked.
    5 person did not like.
  • Celine Charcoal (1/19/2010 11:21:00 AM)

    my poems are better than these.

    10 person liked.
    150 person did not like.
  • Michael Speakman (1/12/2010 11:36:00 AM)

    I like to read this poet because the way he puts his words together.Not necessarily for his sentiment which can be bleak.Though I think there is great humour in his work too..

    14 person liked.
    6 person did not like.
  • Paul Cornell (1/6/2010 4:42:00 AM)

    a very dark & bleak portrayal of life but this is just a pesamistic view anyone who really feels this i recommend you read the art of happiness by dali lama - it literally changed my life. still a very good poem. if anyone gets time check some of mine out. ty

    5 person liked.
    29 person did not like.
  • Poenee La (7/11/2008 4:55:00 PM)

    bukowski is a sad, bitter old man with a realism that is refreshing to us that live with dreamers, with that said his dreams were in the dark where dreams are meant to be had

    16 person liked.
    9 person did not like.
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