This was too good not to share.
(I lasted exactly two whole weeks on my blog publishing break. More, maybe, on that later. I did promise not to overwhelm you…. )
Looks like poet Charles Bukowski said a few years back what I finally came to believe.
The message certainly bears repeating.
So much truth in this poem: death before death, dead-in-spirit.
Or as I once heard it put: “When you grow old and die, dear, how will you know you’re dead?”
Don’t do that. Don’t be that. Save yourself! Save yourself!
In perpetuity if needs be ….
Nobody can save you but
yourself.
you will be put again and again
into nearly impossible
situations.
they will attempt again and again
through subterfuge, guise and
force
to make you submit, quit and /or die quietly
inside.
nobody can save you but
yourself
and it will be easy enough to fail
so very easily
but don’t, don’t, don’t.
just watch them.
listen to them.
do you want to be like that?
a faceless, mindless, heartless
being?
do you want to experience
death before death?
nobody can save you but
yourself
and you’re worth saving.
it’s a war not easily won
but if anything is worth winning then
this is it.
think about it.
think about saving your self.
your spiritual self.
your gut self.
your singing magical self and
your beautiful self.
save it.
don’t join the dead-in-spirit.
maintain your self
with humor and grace
and finally
if necessary
wager your self as you struggle,
damn the odds, damn
the price.
only you can save your
self.
do it! do it!
then you’ll know exactly what
I am talking about.
Charles Bukowski, “Nobody But You” from Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way, 2002
Expressive Compulsive 