/lit/ - Literature

Poetry critique thread /lit/. Post some of your own and let anons discuss.

To You, In The Kitchen

It’s a fucked up thing
how the air stings
when you’re near me

And a billion suns
rest inside my ribcage
and it burns

Just like the house
in which we spent days
endless, hazeful days

When we were stoned
and marooned
and broken
and happy

What works for me is that I look at the bigger picture. Look at the sky at night, the stars and the moon, and the currently invisible Sun. Now expand that view; you're in a huge galaxy, inside of a huge cluster of galaxies, and those are hovering in an empty space filled with absolutely nothing but meandering energy that lurks from the big bang. Now come back to Earth, and think, for instance, that you feel sad and depressed, and you feel like dying.

Will the Universe care if you die?
Will the starts come down from heaven to make you feel better?
Will the sun shine during the night just so you can stay awake a little bit longer and not cry yourself to sleep?

No. It won't.

We're small pieces of nothing, to paraphrase Alan Moore in Watchmen, we are "events so fast and so small you could barely say they happened at all". The whole planet could disappear tomorrow, and nothing and no one would care. God isn't real, so there is nothing you can do to stop death and to avoid the general meaninglessnes of life.

You are nothing. And as such, you must relish and embrace that you are nothing. We have so little time on this world, that we have nothing to do but appreciate it, and make it the best we can. We are all gonna die, so, the way I see it, we should make our brief existance as enjoyable and as free and as loving as we can.

By this I don't mean you have to be a hedonistic SOB, I'm saying that you must enjoy every single day, every single second, make peaces with everyone who once hurt you and whom you once hurt. Life is shit, but we have more than enough capacity to make it worthwhile.

Life is meaningless, but that only opens an oportunity to give it a meaning.

Read up some Camus, it'll cheer you up and make you think.

ITT: Comedic writing

Here's my attempt:

I stopped smoking when i realized my shit smellled like stale Marlboro.
I quit drinking when I saw that I was looking more and more like my dad, and as much as I´d love to have his car, I’d never want to be just like him, and even worse to be like him when he gets wasted.
I quit getting stoned when I realized absolutely nothing.
I quit having one night stands when I realized girls’ pussies started to feel cold and icy.
I quit writing when I realized this shit wasn’t goin anywhere.

>I implore you to find a better literary interviewee than Charles Bukowski.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5cxkh0euvU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_WGfDar4Xg

A Bohemian Youth by Josef Hirsal is great.

Also, anything by Jean Genet.

And most definately, anything by Charles Bukwoski.

Charles Bukowski

His novels are excellent, but nothing beats the emotional punch his short-stories carry.

Sooo - i just finished reading "Ham on Rye" by Charles Bukowski and i'm currently looking for my next book to read.

My question is: What other books would you guys on /lit/ recommend that are similar to Charles Bukowski's style in term of themes and language?

I drink. Therefore I'm happy.

what's /lit/'s opinion of Bukowski? I was a massive fan of works like women and post office. However, I finished pulp, his and it was dire. I think everyone got on the bandwagon of his cult status and he got hyped to a point where he could shit something out and critics would lap it up and ask for more.