A very short poem, a brevity and so wonderfully put. Congratulations with the Modern Poem Of The Day to the family of the great Poet!
i was going to simply agree with Sarita below, but no... Dear Site Manager, Do not rip the classics apart. Either post them in full, or refrain from posting them at all. Who wants to read one line out of a poem, that's like only seeing the error page of a website (useless) . besides to the likes of Chuck Buk, it is just disrespectful. get some radio guts. this 20 line poem, which is brilliant looks like nonesense when only the single line is posted. grow up! Al.
Charles Bukowski was for his bluntness he had I dont give a crap attitude thats what I admire about him. He Is all about free verse wish it would come back instead of all this water downed stuff that we read today.
I think the 'Following' signifies his cult following. And the man who called from Denver was a fan.
I found the entire text at another site. Since it includes some profanity I suppose some sites do not wish to include it. I think it's a good poem, and certainly not conventional. I was amused by the frankness of it. I would not say it is my favorite piece at all, but it is interesting and a shout from a very 'free' spirit at the time.
The title, A Following, may be the key to this one. I have received such calls at night, sometimes wrong numbers and sometimes a person who definitiely was drinking. Someone lonely, looking to connect with another human being, someone with a problem just wanting to talk? This poem may tell us something about are humanness.
Perhaps these short bursts of expression are meant to juggle the contents of the mind, like Buddhist koans. The purpose being to identify the difference between 'explanation' and 'understanding.' Or, perhaps, to highlight the notion that God is not always 'in the details, ' so to speak. Sometimes God watches from the perimeter.
Just two lines left to a lot of imagination