You never say duck and ducking (1 Viewer)

[artifice]

in the beginning of Born Into This they show him reading the end of a poem:
"i saw him looking at me and i ducked quickly forward, ducking my head back into the night....it was "moved quickly forward". You never say ducked and ducking. Thats the first thing you learn, but i fucked it up 'cause i'm drunk off wine"

what poem was that?

also "forgive me; you have my soul and i have your money".
is that from a poem or just bukowki being bukowski?

 

[CRBSMILE]

..."Thats the first thing you learn, but i fucked it up 'cause i'm drunk off wine"

what poem was that?

I always thought about using that line for my signiture. I love it!
I don't know what poem he was reading from, but I would like to know too. This is a good question.CRB:)

 

[artifice]

i might have missed it, but as far as i can tell it isn't in Burning in Water either...

 

[hank solo]

I don't think it made the cut in the 'There's Gonna Be a God Damn Riot in Here' DVD, and I don't recognise it from the clip in 'Born Into This'.

I would guess that it is probably an uncollected poem written in 78 or 79... But this is just my best guess.

I know. Shocking.

 

[Bukfan]

also "forgive me; you have my soul and i have your money".
is that from a poem or just bukowki being bukowski?

I think that's from a reading where Bukowski is just being Bukowski....

 

[artifice]

so......nobody knows that poem?

 

[hoochmonkey9]

I know the one you mean. I'm going through some old Bukowski cassettes that I'm sure has the reading.

give me a day, or so.

 

[hoochmonkey9]

ok.

the poem is called "the beast", but it's not the one from The Roominghouse Madrigals.

my guess is it's the version from Legs, Hips and Behind. but I don't own that to confirm. that publication was 1978, the reading was 1979.

it's too late for me to transcribe it tonight (ain't I important!), but can do so if needed tomorrow. the poem also appears on the Redondo Beach (Hostage) cd, around the 40 minute mark. or the Last Straw dvd. which of course are from the same reading.

 

[mjp]

Yep:

I saw him looking down at me
and I quickly moved forward
ducking my head down
into the night.

It's the last stanza of a poem about a 370 pound, 6 1/2 foot tall, four foot wide man, lazily punching a naked woman in the face.

You know, typical Bukowski.

 

[roni]

you never say duck? how about this:

"... and I walked out the door and out onto the landlord's lawn and ducked just in time to avoid a football thrown by a future S.C.quarterback ..."

(from 'A Rain Of Women')

 

[Socratease]

Or this:

"Gibson got me with the jab but as it hit me I ducked my head down to one side as quickly as I could."

(Chapter 37 of 'Ham on Rye')

Okay, so that's not strictly duck or ducking, but it's close enough.

 

[CRBSMILE]

Great find hooch & mjp! Thanks! I'd love to read the whole thing here someday hooch, if it's not available elsewhere. CRB:)

 

[hank solo]

Okay, typed it up... here.

 

[hoochmonkey9]

thanks hank.

beats my transcribing skills. ;)

 

[artifice]

thank you for helping me, i had been looking for a long time. as for the two up there quoting times bukowski used variations of the word duck... i think you misunderstood the original quote, it's saying you never use two variations of the same verb that close to eachother; so he MOVED quickly forward and DUCKED his head instead of DUCKING quickly then Ducking his head.

thanks again for the help everyone

 

[roni]

Ah! he's Back!
at last!
welcome back, baby!

[...] i think you misunderstood the original quote, it's saying you never use two variations of the same verb that close to eachother [...]

you're right!
I even think I was part of fucking that up!
But - you are totally right!


He said similar things quite often, like (I don't really quote here - it's just from memory):

"In 'Women' I often just used the words 'he said', 'she said' etc. but John [Martin] killed that and wrote 'he replied' or something instead. Does he think, I cannot write?" - that was from a letter and shows how he didn't care at all for these things you "learn first" but had a very clear idea of using (simple) language.


"I never learned how to type [...] when I hit the wrong key and it's the start of a word, I just think of another word starting with that letter. [...] because I didn't care" (that was from a poem.) It clearly shows, that even when he did things by mistake, he didn't necessarily care about it.

But don't think now, he was indifferent to his writing!
The letter above shows the opposite.
Maybe in his youth he was more careless. Maybe he was sometimes careless and sometimes not. Maybe he was careless on certain issues and very caring on issues that seem very close to those.

but anyway: you are right!
it wasn't about the use of the word itself but about the use of Any word twice.

you should stay here.