"Style," Charles Bukowski (~1972) [literature]
"To do a dangerous thing with style is what I call art"
Charles Bukowski is a pretty gruff guy, but an incredible talent nonetheless. I love this poem about style. It feels like it’s meant to be read aloud from a whiskey-stained notebook by someone with a raspy voice and cigarette in the corner of his mouth.
You can get all of that in spades when you watch Bukowski read it in front of a hootin’ and hollerin’ audience (video below).
Here it is (with my favorite lines bolded):
“style is the answer to everything --
a fresh way to approach a dull or a
dangerous thing.
to do a dull thing with style
is preferable to doing a dangerous thing
without style.To do a dangerous thing with style
is what I call artBullfighting can be an art
Boxing can be an art
Loving can be an art
Opening a can of sardines can be an art
Not many have style
Not many can keep style
I have seen dogs with more style than men,
although not many dogs have style.
Cats have it with abundance.
When Hemingway put his brains to the wall with a shotgun,
that was style.
Or sometimes people give you style
Joan of Arc had style
John the Baptist
Jesus
Socrates
Caesar
García Lorca.I have met men in jail with style.
I have met more men in jail with style than men out of jail.
Style is the difference, a way of doing, a way of being done.
Six herons standing quietly in a pool of water,
or you, naked, walking out of the bathroom without seeing me.”
More to buzz about
Peggy Gou (future post coming) samples the poem in the closing song of her 2018 album, “Mixmag Presents Peggy Gou”