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we are always asked
to understand the other person's
viewpoint
no matter how
out-dated
foolish or
obnoxious.
one is asked
to view
their total error
their life-waste
with
kindliness,
especially if they are
aged.
but age is the total of
our doing.
they have aged
badly
because they have
lived
out of focus,
they have refused to
see.
not their fault?
whose fault?
mine?
I am asked to hide
my viewpoint
from them
for fear of their
fear.
age is no crime
but the shame
of a deliberately
wasted
life
among so many
deliberately
wasted
lives
is.
Charles Bukowski
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Click here to write your comments about this poem (Be Kind by Charles Bukowski)
Alex Klein (1/28/2008 12:11:00 AM)
Aw crap, here I go again!
There's a lot of people I've met in libraries who take there presence there in itself as meaning something. Full-fledged snoberry. There's the 'actual' quite person in that very library who might actually be way beyond that snobery for sure. But, more often than not; they're few. Or so it would seem. I don't frequent libraries that often. But it seems that every time I do, I'm teetering on the edge of that kind of reaction. People wrapped up in the classics looking over their shoulders at anyone that might make a noise; like some punk or something. I was dressed up in my usual clothes; sort of half skater, half stoner (I don't like those black and white terms, but I'll go with them for the purpose of description) , and I went up to the lady working the computer...I asked for Huxley's 'The Doors of Perception'. The girl started looking to see if the book was available. I was then somewhat 'attacked' by this women to my right. I say attacked, but I actually thouroughly enjoyed her fight. She looked me up and down while saying that I was just looking for books about drugs by drug addicts that are taken far too seriously. I said that a drug does'nt have an opinion. And I think I smiled at her like a lunatic after that, but felt so embarassed and idiotic. Inside I wanted to add a lot more to my deffence, but I'm not good with aggresive moments. The girl working there told me they did'nt have the book and I noticed the girl who I'd argued with smiling in the corner of my eye. I had quite a bit of time on my hands that day, and the only thing I regret is not having invited that bitter girl for a seat or two and a good argument beyond that awkward space in front of the nervous girl who was trying not to laugh and smile. I cycled home on my bike imagining all the things I could have said in my deffence. The usual.
It reminds me of scenes where a father, or mother or any family member can't take the mad lifestyle of their loved-ones but then retires to bed beneath a copy of a Van Gaugh painting and reads a writer who eventually killed themselves. |
Alex Klein (1/27/2008 11:45:00 PM)
Michael Speakman: Maybe they're not THAT bad. Maybe I am'nt understanding you though. But if you really feel 'they' are., should'nt you wonder about your kindness that ou speak of? Judges and all that...Maybe I did'nt spot you're sarchasm though. Were you? |
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Charles Bukowski
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