Hug The Dark By Charles Bukowski

If you could just read out a poem instead of talking. Wouldn’t it help avoid all the awkwardness, anxiety and even conflict in some cases. Are poetry recitals only reserved during proclamations of love?

Two women walk into a bar… no this is not a bar joke. Two women walk into a bar and at least one of them is not okay. Now the other woman is almost obliged to make her feel better. Maybe they both work at the same place. And the one not feeling okay is her boss? We don’t know for sure.

So, the other woman manages to mumble only a few sentences. Maybe by now she is down one drink too many. And suddenly she fishes out a paper on which Charles Bukowski’s poem Hug the dark is written. Is it a coincidence that she had the exact poem for the occasion? Or just plain luck?

Be that as it may, she starts reading out the poem to her troubled companion, even as the noise in the bar refuses to subside. After-all, they are surrounded by other people who are unaware of their situation. In fact, this glorious poem is nothing but noise to them.

Lets just hope that this poetry narration may have created a sense of intimacy and isolation between the two women, who shared a moment that is both personal and public.

Listen to the dramatic rendition of Hug The Dark by Charles Bukowski with the accompaniment of stills from Jim Jarmusch’s film Coffee and Cigarettes (2003).

Hug The Dark (complete poem) by Charles Bukowski

turmoil is the god
madness is the god

permanent living peace is
permanent living death

agony can kill
or
agony can sustain life
but peace is always horrifying
peace is the worst thing
walking
talking
smiling
seeming to be.

don’t forget the sidewalks
the whores
betrayal,
the worm in the apple,
the bars, the jails,
the suicides of lovers.

here is America
we have assassinated a president and his brother,
another president has quit office.

people who believe in politics
are like people who believe in god:
they are sucking wind through bent
straws.

there is no god
there are no politics
there is no peace
there is no love.

there is no control
there is no plan.

stay away from god
remain disturbed

slide.