{"id":31154,"date":"2018-09-06T09:28:26","date_gmt":"2018-09-06T13:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/?p=31154"},"modified":"2018-09-06T12:20:48","modified_gmt":"2018-09-06T16:20:48","slug":"remembering-bukowski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2018\/09\/remembering-bukowski.html","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Bukowski"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7E0Io7wrzqs\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>The animation, directed by John Hodgson, dates to 1999. A tip of the hat to <a href=\"http:\/\/internationaltimes.it\/\">IT: International Times, The Newspaper of Resistance<\/a>, for reminding us of it. The poem is included in <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B000V5077A\/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&#038;btkr=1\">The Last Night of the Earth Poems<\/a><\/em>, published by HarperCollins in a 2009 reprint. The first edition was published in 1992 by Black Sparrow Press.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><font size=5><strong>the man with the beautiful eyes<\/strong><\/font>  <\/p>\n<p><font size=2>when we were kids<br \/>\nthere was a strange house<br \/>\nall the shades were<br \/>\nalways<br \/>\ndrawn<br \/>\nand we never heard voices<br \/>\nin there<br \/>\nand the yard was full of<br \/>\nbamboo<br \/>\nand we liked to play in<br \/>\nthe bamboo<br \/>\npretend we were<br \/>\nTarzan<br \/>\n(although there was no<br \/>\nJane).<br \/>\nand there was a<br \/>\nfish pond<br \/>\na large one<br \/>\nfull of the<br \/>\nfattest goldfish<br \/>\nyou ever saw<br \/>\nand they were<br \/>\ntame.<br \/>\nthey came to the<br \/>\nsurface of the water<br \/>\nand took pieces of<br \/>\nbread<br \/>\nfrom our hands.<\/p>\n<p>Our parents had<br \/>\ntold us:<br \/>\n&#8220;never go near that<br \/>\nhouse.&#8221;<br \/>\nso, of course,<br \/>\nwe went.<br \/>\nwe wondered if anybody<br \/>\nlived there.<br \/>\nweeks went by and we<br \/>\nnever saw<br \/>\nanybody.<\/p>\n<p>then one day<br \/>\nwe heard<br \/>\na voice<br \/>\nfrom the house<br \/>\n&#8220;YOU GOD DAMNED<br \/>\nWHORE!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>it was a man&#8217;s<br \/>\nvoice.<\/p>\n<p>then the screen<br \/>\ndoor<br \/>\nof the house was<br \/>\nflung open<br \/>\nand the man<br \/>\nwalked<br \/>\nout.<\/p>\n<p>he was holding a<br \/>\nfifth of whiskey<br \/>\nin his right<br \/>\nhand.<br \/>\nhe was about<br \/>\n30.<br \/>\nhe had a cigar<br \/>\nin his<br \/>\nmouth,<br \/>\nneeded a shave.<br \/>\nhis hair was<br \/>\nwild and<br \/>\nand uncombed<br \/>\nand he was<br \/>\nbarefoot<br \/>\nin undershirt<br \/>\nand pants.<br \/>\nbut his eyes<br \/>\nwere<br \/>\nbright.<br \/>\nthey blazed<br \/>\nwith<br \/>\nbrightness<br \/>\nand he said,<br \/>\n&#8220;hey, little<br \/>\ngentlemen,<br \/>\nhaving a good<br \/>\ntime, I<br \/>\nhope?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>then he gave a<br \/>\nlittle laugh<br \/>\nand walked<br \/>\nback into the<br \/>\nhouse.<\/p>\n<p>we left,<br \/>\nwent back to my<br \/>\nparents&#8217; yard<br \/>\nand thought<br \/>\nabout it. <\/p>\n<p>our parents,<br \/>\nwe decided,<br \/>\nhad wanted us<br \/>\nto stay away<br \/>\nfrom there<br \/>\nbecause they<br \/>\nnever wanted us<br \/>\nto see a man<br \/>\nlike<br \/>\nthat,<br \/>\na strong natural<br \/>\nman<br \/>\nwith<br \/>\nbeautiful<br \/>\neyes.<\/p>\n<p>our parents<br \/>\nwere ashamed<br \/>\nthat they were<br \/>\nnot<br \/>\nlike that<br \/>\nman,<br \/>\nthat&#8217;s why they<br \/>\nwanted us<br \/>\nto stay<br \/>\naway.<\/p>\n<p>but<br \/>\nwe went back<br \/>\nto that house<br \/>\nand the bamboo<br \/>\nand the tame<br \/>\ngoldfish.<br \/>\nwe went back<br \/>\nmany times<br \/>\nfor many weeks<br \/>\nbut we never<br \/>\nsaw<br \/>\nor heard<br \/>\nthe man<br \/>\nagain.<\/p>\n<p>the shades were<br \/>\ndown<br \/>\nas always<br \/>\nand it was<br \/>\nquiet.<\/p>\n<p>then one day<br \/>\nas we came back from<br \/>\nschool<br \/>\nwe saw the<br \/>\nhouse.<\/p>\n<p>it had burned<br \/>\ndown,<br \/>\nthere was nothing<br \/>\nleft,<br \/>\njust a smouldering<br \/>\ntwisted black<br \/>\nfoundation<br \/>\nand we went to<br \/>\nthe fish pond<br \/>\nand there was<br \/>\nno water<br \/>\nin it<br \/>\nand the fat<br \/>\norange goldfish<br \/>\nwere dead<br \/>\nthere,<br \/>\ndrying out.<\/p>\n<p>we went back to<br \/>\nmy parents&#8217; yard<br \/>\nand talked about<br \/>\nit<br \/>\nand decided that<br \/>\nour parents had<br \/>\nburned their<br \/>\nhouse down,<br \/>\nhad killed<br \/>\nthem<br \/>\nhad killed the<br \/>\ngoldfish<br \/>\nbecause it was<br \/>\nall too<br \/>\nbeautiful,<br \/>\neven the bamboo<br \/>\nforest had<br \/>\nburned.<\/p>\n<p>they had been<br \/>\nafraid of<br \/>\nthe man with the<br \/>\nbeautiful<br \/>\neyes.<\/p>\n<p>and<br \/>\nwe were afraid<br \/>\nthen<br \/>\nthat<br \/>\nall throughout our lives<br \/>\nthings like that<br \/>\nwould<br \/>\nhappen,<br \/>\nthat nobody<br \/>\nwanted<br \/>\nanybody<br \/>\nto be<br \/>\nstrong and<br \/>\nbeautiful<br \/>\nlike that,<br \/>\nthat<br \/>\nothers would never<br \/>\nallow it,<br \/>\nand that<br \/>\nmany people<br \/>\nwould have to<br \/>\ndie.<br \/>\n<font size=4><strong><em>charles bukowski<\/em><\/strong><\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The animation, directed by John Hodgson, dates to 1999. A tip of the hat to IT: International Times, The Newspaper of Resistance, for reminding us of it. The poem is included in The Last Night of the Earth Poems, published by HarperCollins in a 2009 reprint. The first edition was published in 1992 by Black [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19,18,4,20,23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-31154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-art","8":"category-literature","9":"category-main","10":"category-media","11":"category-news","12":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/BUKOWKSI-The-Man-With-the-Beautiful-Eyes.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-86u","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31154"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31183,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31154\/revisions\/31183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}