In 1967 an older poet friend of mine, Zoltan Farkas, gave me a copy of Charles Bukowski’s “Crucifix in a Deathhand” and my life was changed forever. I went from being a teenager interested in being a writer to a one who absolutely had to be a writer. I quickly found out that attempting to write in Bukowski’s straight ahead style was much more difficult than it appeared. Shedding literary pretension and cutting to the heart of whatever is at hand is a process in which you have to get rid of everything that stands between you and the truth, including art.

Here’s a little video I made for one of my favorite Bukowski poems. “Something for The Touts, The Nuns, The Grocery Clerks And You” is Charles Bukowski at his absolute best - angry, bitter, sad, beautiful and funny. From the 1974 collection Burning In Water, Drowning In Flame.

The video is composed of found footage and clips from the works of Arthur Lipsett and Gregory Markopoulos.

If you think you’ve seen this here before, you have. I felt it worth sharing again.