The Beats

Charles Bukowski (2005)

some keep trying to connect me with
the beats
but I was vastly unpublished in the
50's
and
I very much
disliked their vanity and
all that
public
postering.

and when I met most of them
later in my life
I still felt that most of my
feelings toward
them
were the
same.

some accepted
that; others thought that I
should change my
viewpoint.

my viewpoint remained the
same: writing is done
one person
at a time

one place
at a time

and all the gatherings
and tenderings of
proclamations toward the
flock
had very little
to do
with anything.

any one of those
could have made it as a
shoe salesman or a
used car
salesman

and they still
could
instead of bitching about
the changes of the fates and
the ways

even
still
now:

from the sad university
lecterns
these hucksters of the
despoiled word
working the
hand-outs
still talking that
dumb shit.