• sitting on my deck, i hear the star-shaped wind chime singing as birds flock around the adjacent bird feeder. my dog does not like this so he promptly howls toward them, scattering them wildly. it's a beautiful summer day. i am twenty years old.

  a bird perches warily on my roof, looking down at the bird feeder guarded by my silly dog. i think about love and i feel glad. i store this moment in my thoughts because peace is a fickle luxury that i must enjoy whenever it reveals itself.

  INTERVIEWER: What is your definition of love?

  BUKOWSKI: Love is kinda like you know when you see a fog in the morning when you wake up before the sun comes out? It's just there a little while, then it burns away.

  INTERVIEWER: Really?

  BUKOWSKI: Absolutely.

  INTERVIEWER: It burns away?

  BUKOWSKI: Yeah. Quickly. Love is a fog that burns with the first daylight of reality. 

  bukowski said that love is a fog, but i disagree. love is a lighthouse, as dumb as that sounds. i mean all kinds of love, too. love doesn't burn away. the lighthouse can't disappear, but you can lose sight of it if you're not where you're supposed to be. the question to ask is: are you where you want to be? because that's where you're supposed to be.

  love is the first daylight of reality, only of the reality you desire, cutting through the muddy fog of existence.

• What a cute song. I'll have to download from somewhere & listen.

  
  

  I like your lighthouse analogy. I agree with you; "love" - universally/generally - is not fog, as he says. The fog is more implicit, maybe, in defining a side effect of love (love gone-wrong) in his case....HOWEVER it is beautiful imagery, and it instantly struck home with me - re: situations in no way relating to "love" - but resonating, for me, more so with persistence & defeat in the pursuit of actualizing your life 'dreams'/goals, plans. That sort of things.

  
  

  Thanks for sharing this.

  rsmileyon January 30, 2014   Link

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• I actually love this. Nice imagery. I also love how you explained how the lighthouse metaphor.

  musicgypsyon June 29, 2013   Link

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• Interesting. I made a reference to Bukowski in this poem:

  
  

  http://connecthook.wordpress.com/mine/various/lines-composed-upon-the-finished-perusal-of-a-large-volume-of-poetry/

  
  

  See if you can find the stanza about him and comment if you can (like or dislike - I don't care.) Cheers and keep writing.

  NomadMonadon June 23, 2013   Link

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    I meant no disrespect, by the way! I was simply curious and I understand why you like this place. It's a nice place to mouth off and, of course, vent about personal angst. The best way to improve at writing, as with anything else, is to practice so I always encourage people to write whatever they want. I enjoy reading the same journals and seeing how people improve over the years. <br /> <br /> I read your poem and I liked it. I believe the part about Bukowski is "or the autodestructive self-pitying boozer,/ whose quaint observations enshrining the vile/ are a crime against life — and an art for the loser."<br /> <br /> Bukowski is my favourite poet though, so I must disagree with you. Here's a website with three of his poems that I really like, but ignore the blog itself. The second one is one of my favourite. http://thinkinink.wordpress.com/tag/for-they-had-things-to-say/<br /> <br /> Anyway, thanks and you keep writing too.

    RosesAtSunseton June 23, 2013  

    *favourites

    RosesAtSunseton June 23, 2013  

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