Do you know this quote? (1 Viewer)

Erik

If u don't know the poetry u don't know Bukowski
Founding member
I've got this Buk-quote (I think) lodged in my memory, but I just can't pinpoint the poem it comes from. In it a mouse (rat?) climbs up Buk's dresser (or somesuch) next to his bed and they both eye each other resulting in this:

caught together
and awkward in that way​

Its funny with lines you remember like this, they tend to get warped in some way, with time, and I'm starting to think I dreamed up the whole thing.

Anyway - anyone remember these lines or something resembling them?
 
I don't remember those lines, but if I read them again I know I'll think, "Those lines are familiar...why do I know them?" and I'll never remember that I know them because of this forum. Heh.

Which is no help. But someone may know.
 
Yeah, I realize its a long shot. Would be nice if someone could pinpoint it though

Maybe we could expand this thread to the following:
Which poem-lines are stuck in your head and have virtually become part of your daily vocabulary?

Here's another one of mine:

it's not the large things that
send a man to the
madhouse.

(the shoelace)​
 
Reading this forum is almost as good as reading buk himself!! thank-you mjp critera and all!! i dont remeber which book of letters, maybe "screams"? buk was writing someone about being challenged by another aggressive driver on the freeway, after "out balling" him, buk writes "thats what they get for fucking with a suiside" ....yes.....
 
caught together​
and awkward in that way​

anyone remember these lines or something resembling them?
I found those lines in a poem called 59 Cents a Pound (from Play the Piano Drunk..., page 115):

I feel sorry for us all or glad for us
all
caught alive together
and awkward in that way.

As for that other part:
a mouse (rat?) climbs up Buk's dresser (or somesuch) next to his bed and they both eye each other
I found two poems that sound close enough:
the mice will become
bolder.
one will come up on
the dresser,
climb up on the handle
of the coffee cup,
hang there,
looking at you.
you will get up and
approach the mouse.
you are the
intruder.
as you get closer
he still will not
move.
his eyes and your eyes
will intermix.
it is the clash of
centuries.
then he will leap
through the air
in the darkness and
be gone.
You Don't Know, Betting on the Muse

I began to see things:
coffee cups lined up
behind a counter in a
cafe.
or a dog walking along
a sidewalk.
or the way the mouse
on my dresser top
stopped there,
really stopped there
with its body,
its ears,
its nose,
it was fixed,
a bit of life
caught within itself
and its eyes looked
at me
and they were
beautiful.
then—it was
gone.
Let It Enfold You, Betting on the Muse

It sure looks like Buk had a lot of those mouse/rat encounters...
 
book of letters, maybe "screams"? buk was writing someone about being challenged by another aggressive driver on the freeway, after "out balling" him, buk writes "thats what they get for fucking with a suiside"
Got into a giant speed duel with some asshole on the Pasadena Freeway, this morning, the 3 bottle of Gamay Beaujolais hangover rising from my balls and out of the top of my Villon head, I got it up to 85 on the Devil’s Curve where meat and bone are often separated in a flash of flaming nothingness and he fell back gasping, shifting down from 5th to 4th and flashing his front headlights in surrender. That’ll teach ’em to fuck with a Suicide.
Reach for the Sun, from a letter to William Packard (late October, 1985)
 
Many thanks Zobraks! It took 12 years but the long shot finally paid off. There's a saying in Norwegian that seems appropiate: "When you're waiting for something good, you're not waiting in vain."

Also glad this forum has lasted this long. Thats pretty special too.

Glad to see I (almost) remembered the quote correct. Play the Piano isn't the collection I know best. Time to look it up again.
 
Thank you, Erik. I'm glad you found my post helpful.
You're most welcome.
There's a saying in Norwegian that seems appropriate: "When you're waiting for something good, you're not waiting in vain."
In Serbia we say: "He who waits for something will eventually get it."
It took only twelve years in your case. :)
 

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