Bukowski! Dion Agius reads The Laughing Heart

What do you want from your existence? Pain? Complaints? Seize life with both hands and throttle its neck!

Dion Agius reads The Laughing Heart from BeachGrit on Vimeo.

And here we see the surfer and photographer Dion Agius surfing, early evening, in south-west France while a recording he made, also in France, colours the air.

The poem is the same one Levis used in an advertisement a little while back and, yet, its theme of acknowledging the brittle hold we have on life and therefore the importance of seizing every single day of it, is universal.

It’s a short poem that Dion reads with a resolute steady swing. A very good entry point into the poetry of Bukowski whom every wanna-be drunk beat poet absolutely adores. And how can you not when Bukowski says things like:

“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula, the big answers don’t remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.”

Here are the words to the poem. Read along.

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 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.