sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think,
I’m not going to make it, but you laugh inside
remembering all the times you’ve felt that way, and
you walk to the bathroom, do your toilet, see that face
in the mirror, oh my oh my oh my, but you comb your hair anyway,
get into your street clothes, feed the cats, fetch the
newspaper of horror, place it on the coffee table, kiss your
wife goodbye, and then you are backing the car out into life itself,
like millions of others you enter the arena once more.
you are on the freeway threading through traffic now,
moving both towards something and towards nothing at all as you punch
the radio on and get Mozart, which is something, and you will somehow
get through the slow days and the busy days and the dull
days and the hateful days and the rare days, all both so delightful
and so disappointing because
we are all so alike and so different.
you find the turn-off, drive through the most dangerous
part of town, feel momentarily wonderful as Mozart works
his way into your brain and slides down along your bones and
out through your shoes.
it’s been a tough fight worth fighting
as we all drive along
betting on another day.
— Charles Bukowski, “Gamblers All” in The Night Torn Mad With Footsteps
Notes: Portrait of Bukowski by Patrick Jarnoux / Paris Match via Getty Images via PBS News Hour. Poem: Thank you Beth @ Alive on All Channels
That was my life up to every detail apart from role reversal….. Impeccable account, gr8 Bukovski. HAPPY MONDAY EVERYBODY.
I don‘t know how you live these days but in our part of the woods it‘s a Holiday (holy day?) for most of us. Some however will drive 700km to their work place, in order to be ready tomorrow for the Bukovski grind 😉
Happy Holiday Kiki!
True and completely agree with your words and life goes on.
Yes…
Yes
amazing… thank you
It is, thank you Pamela.
life goes on with or without us. what choice do we have but to participate?
Yes, and to do so with gratitude!
So me today, and a 12-hour day ahead!!!
You are a machine!
Yes, and lunch break was a wake of a coworker who was on schedule today. Passed away yesterday!
Wow. So sad!
Oy. That grind. Most of us have to do one form or another of it, don’t we?
Have a great Monday!
Oh Dale, you strike me as making sunshine out of all grinding!
Umm…
Let’s just say when I can’t make sunshine, I move on. Which explains my lack of a decent pension…
LAUGHING!
Any time…
May your Monday transform with some of this Spring energy! If it doesn’t look out some Mozart. Thanks David 💛
Yes. Let’s do Mozart! (It’s been raining non-stop!)
Each morning I get up and dressed and face the day
That’s so great!
Reminds me of Leo Kotke’s Jack Gets Up.
“every morning, you fall flat, you fall flat” LOVE THIS!