If you are going to try, go all the way

If you are going to try, go all the way

Though popular, I’ve always found the poetry of Charles Bukowski harsh.  Is it the harshness of the cold light of truth?

What do you think?  Or do things work out the opposite of what he says?  When we give up our greatest idea for a friend, for a pay cheque,  or because it seems to hard ~ then we know who and what is really important to us.

But we also have to ask the question David White and Paolo Coelho might ask.  Without our dream, who are we?  And what will our friend or employer or our sense of self think when we give up so readily?

Will they think more of us, or less, when we give up?  Maybe they like us because of our dreams however inconvenient our dreams may be?

What do you think?

Roll the Dice
by Charles Bukowski

if you’re going to try, go all the
way.
otherwise, don’t even start.

if you’re going to try, go all the
way. this could mean losing girlfriends,
wives, relatives, jobs and
maybe your mind.

go all the way.
it could mean not eating for 3 or
4 days.
it could mean freezing on a
park bench.
it could mean jail,
it could mean derision,
mockery,
isolation.
isolation is the gift,
all the others are a test of your
endurance, of
how much you really want to
do it.
and you’ll do it
despite rejection and the
worst odds
and it will be better than
anything else
you can imagine.

if you’re going to try,
go all the way.
there is no other feeling like
that.
you will be alone with the
gods
and the nights will flame with
fire.

do it, do it, do it.
do it.

all the way
all the way.
you will ride life straight to
perfect laughter,
it’s the only good fight
there is.