The Laughing Heart

(For a little bit of assurance, and a lot a bit of love for Tom Waits and Charles Bukowski and because I've been thinking about The Beats lately.)


Listening to Waits read this poem made me realize just how powerful human expression is. It should never be withheld, always embraced, and shared with the world. If ever I'm not okay with being myself, I will think of Bukowski's words, because we ought to remind ourselves we are marvelous, we are to be delighted in.

The Laughing Heart
By Charles Bukowski

your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is a light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.