Dinosauria, We (Born Into This) by Charles Bukowski

Music: Scott Buckley - Filaments (copyright free)
Speaker: Tom O' Bedlam (SpokenVerse)
Full poem:
Born like this
Into this
As the chalk faces smile
As Mrs. Death laughs
As the elevators break
As political landscapes dissolve
As the supermarket bag boy holds a college degree
As the oily fish spit out their oily prey
As the sun is masked
We are
Born like this
Into this
Into these carefully mad wars
Into the sight of broken factory windows of emptiness
Into bars where people no longer speak to each other
Into fist fights that end as shootings and knifings
Born into this
Into hospitals which are so expensive that it’s cheaper to die
Into lawyers who charge so much it’s cheaper to plead guilty
Into a country where the jails are full and the madhouses closed
Into a place where the masses elevate fools into rich heroes
Born into this
Walking and living through this
Dying because of this
Muted because of this
Castrated
Debauched
Disinherited
Because of this
Fooled by this
Used by this
Pissed on by this
Made crazy and sick by this
Made violent
Made inhuman
By this
The heart is blackened
The fingers reach for the throat
The gun
The knife
The bomb
The fingers reach toward an unresponsive god
The fingers reach for the bottle
The pill
The powder
We are born into this sorrowful deadliness
We are born into a government 60 years in debt
That soon will be unable to even pay the interest on that debt
And the banks will burn
Money will be useless
There will be open and unpunished murder in the streets
It will be guns and roving mobs
Land will be useless
Food will become a diminishing return
Nuclear power will be taken over by the many
Explosions will continually shake the earth
Radiated robot men will stalk each other
The rich and the chosen will watch from space platforms
Dante’s Inferno will be made to look like a children’s playground
The sun will not be seen and it will always be night
Trees will die
All vegetation will die
Radiated men will eat the flesh of radiated men
The sea will be poisoned
The lakes and rivers will vanish
Rain will be the new gold
The rotting bodies of men and animals will stink in the dark wind
The last few survivors will be overtaken by new and hideous diseases
And the space platforms will be destroyed by attrition
The petering out of supplies
The natural effect of general decay
And there will be the most beautiful silence never heard
Born out of that.
The sun still hidden there
Awaiting the next chapter.
Video: All royalty free video from from pexels.com
#Bukowski #CharlesBukowski

[@halloumi8193]

‘There will be the most beautiful silence never heard’

[@GimbalLocksOnly]

I felt that

[@riggers1977]

Great line - great poem

[@stansmith8242]

I pray this is true.

[@nickbotsford4567]

But how did he know?

[@BrazyBlazer]

Born out of that

[@fidentia10]

Me, a bag boy with a college degree... shit

[@ryanrohn4561]

Bukowski was known to say (paraphrasing) " It's not that I was such a good writer, it's just that others were so damn bad." But I am certain that he was an epic and profound writer that will always annoy the elite, even though he's been gone for a few decades. He left a legacy impossible to ignore.

[@haput160]

"Into a place where masses elevate fools into rich heroes "

[@LoveLensFactsYT]

Elon?

[@eleghari]

​@@LoveLensFactsYTList is too long (Zuckerberg, Diddy, Bezos, Dorsey, Theil, ....) But Elon certainly tops the list...first name that came to my mind too 😊

[@LoveLensFactsYT]

​@@eleghari that's because he's often portrayed, almost literally, as the "hero" who will take us on Mars and other nonsense

[@eleghari]

​@@LoveLensFactsYT"and other nonsense" indeed!

[@martinmichaelmonz2717]

This poem sums up our generational trauma. Sad that we have to witness all this.

[@ChristopherMoye]

There are so many, present truths spoken in this poem. It is saddening, maddening, terrifying...all at the same time. What have we done? What will we do? Is there anything that can be done? I am ust glad i chose not to have children and foist this living hell upon them. I will be the last.

[@randomcomputer7248]

I was thinking the same ! What's more, my Father seems to have a similar view now he is 80yo. I listen to "The Crunch" sometimes, it resonates and its terrifying as you say. The bit about the clock and the loneliness cuts deep, because I know its true. All of humanity is in a tragic and hard existence.

[@yashdhingra3866]

What a terrible world we are born into... Charles Buckowski is the only writer who truly understood the world, for what it really is...

[@julioviloria3289]

@Bob G It's beautiful because we are inevitably doomed. Permanence is boring, impermanence is exhilarating.

[@hb7202]

Its not the whole world, its a part of. On the other side you can hear the love for this world.

[@Dylanesque]

@@hb7202 (There is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average human being to supply any given army on any given day... ) Charles Bukowski. . We are encouraged to despise one another. I'm afraid we are doomed.

[@invictusmaneo464]

Sure not the only one.

[@louiseshaner6024]

There are many of us poets who still see it, but our words are so often overlooked, we are the voiceless. "Muted because of this"

[@jimw.4161]

Only one word fits the late, great Charles Bukowski: GENIUS! RIP Hank

[@rizwanislam4951]

The words flow like truth bombs each one symbolising the future. Epic❣️

[@javieralvarez1072]

Amazing how he predicted 2023.

[@shakeyshaky]

Don't be so pessimistic... 2024.

[@Mac-J]

@@shakeyshakyaged like shit didn’t it

[@user-rt5yh4wy5b]

We are in the time period where the world will shake!

[@andyb4678]

wow. written in 1993...he nailed it

[@jaredbond7908]

"I pity all such brothers of mine...."

[@ameygade1977]

This guy is simply the best - Bukowski

[@dandeliondreamer3365]

Always interesting when someone from the past writes something that seems to describe our present and predicted future (global warming etc), he’s a great writer 👍

[@TheDgoysin]

Was.

[@jbartmontage6737]

Its not global warming, its decay.

[@user-st4yn4tl6h]

A political long poem at its best. Bukowski is still fresh even after decades

[@InMyHook]

Perhaps we don't have another destiny, that's true. That's why it is funnier to die trying, my darling. Hope you receive this message wherever you are. So far, we haven't become prehistoric yet.

[@chim55]

Nice cheery start to the day

[@jamilleriggs7314]

Please give me a bucket for my tears.

[@Fuentesico]

Sometimes when I’m feeling a certain way, I really have nothing but hopelessness and fear. As much as I want to be positive I feel like I cannot escape a terrible end.

[@lillybill4492]

Life isn't about a good or bad end... Your living right now, that's what counts. And regardless of where you are going, in this moment you have a choice. You can smile, you can sing, you can even dance. And choose the destiny of the only moment that matters, this one.

[@shcxatter2]

At that moment, go jump into a frozen lake, it'll get you closer to that terrible end, and it'll make you see how far you actually were.

[@Fuentesico]

@@easypete2936 ok, I realize it

[@Fuentesico]

@@lillybill4492 Sure. I feel you. I sing and I dance. But we are watching a bukowski video right? Not everyone has the energy to sing and dance all the time. Sometimes you get brought down very low, and some times things don’t work out , and you die unfulfilled. I appreciate your comment but it’s also somewhat missing the mark. You may talk of singing and dancing, but what about when the day comes that you are utterly defeated and you want only numbness.

[@Fuentesico]

@@shcxatter2 haha. Who are you wim hof? Lol. Ironically I really enjoy the deliberate cold exposure, and holy cow does it make me realize that I WANNA LIVE GET ME OUTTA HERE. Lol Thanks for the comment , I totally get your point. I kinda mean the depressed feeling of dying lonely and unfulfilled. Not so much literally the manner of my actual death, but the quality of my life, feeling like a victim, feeling misanthropic, feeling disconnected. This is bukowski isn’t it? I figured people here would understand that.

[@Malono_007]

"We are born into this sorrowfull deadliness" Great truth most people cant admit and deal with. Also love this quote "made crazy and sick by this"

[@jonathanhopper2026]

Written 30 years ago, as if he were Nostradamus.

[@lloydsaul997]

This isn't as much of a prediction as it is a warning.

[@aarondavid5866]

@@lloydsaul997thats what a prediction always fucking was pal

[@travisadams4470]

This is man.The words speak of the fall of Greece, Rome, Egypt, Carthage, Spain, England, USA.... it's the history of human civilization.

[@josephbanash4373]

@@lloydsaul997 Every statement has meaning.

[@josephbanash4373]

@@lloydsaul997 Judging by your holier-than-thou attitude and sesquipedalian linguistics, I would argue that you don't have too many to lose anyways. Indeed, I too am capable of producing a written composition in a manner that is replete with highfalutin verbiage and scholastic syntax. It is within my purview to employ a lexicon that is both rarefied and esoteric, thereby demonstrating my proficiency in the art of linguistics and my aptitude for the finer points of academic expression.

[@louiseshaner6024]

Impeccable reading of this prophetic, visionary work.

[@rauldiaz2518]

One of my favorites

[@iaminvisible2889]

Brilliant 👏

[@dukemandu]

One of his best... and disturbingly prophetic.

[@davidswan5708]

Best poem ever!! But when it had the dark evil music with it, it hit like Eerie darkness!!

[@schechter01]

The scary part is at least a couple of those lines have proven to be prophetic... I wonder how many other lines in the poem are, regardless of Bukowski's intentions, also snapshots of the future?

[@EvolveAcademyofMartialArts]

Powerful!

[@harrysteve3107]

Masterpiece

[@VenerateMe]

Thank you for this

[@newhorizon3556]

Thank you!

[@edwallscaffold3843]

How convenient this poem is now. I foresee the future

[@dustinharford8454]

If that's you in the profile picture, I must say you're very handsome :)

[@bluebird669]

Beautiful 👍 Keep it up

[@medicine2202]

Another fascinating poem Thanks for the upload 😀👍

[@yarmar97]

Wonderful video selection, well made in general, love it

[@princechoudhry2086]

Like a futuristic nightmare ride ❤️

[@carolineallshorn291]

It reminds me of the old science fiction writers, of books & movies made, like 2001: A Space Oddessy, and One flew over the Cuckoo nest.., and Brave New World, etc, etc, etc...thank you C B ❤

[@HarborLockRoad]

Only when man is gone, will the reign of useless madness end, and the silent eternity of the universe again bring sanity in its empty randomness. Man, i think i just channelled Bukowski's spirit for a second...

[@rimut230]

it's not the quality of humanity. it'd the quality of those who benefit from this destruction. from this hate

[@iqsta]

"we elevate fools into rich heroes" is a good one for elon musk

[@mercurymachines4311]

No. He's talking about celebrities. Musk is no fool.

[@LoveLensFactsYT]

He is ​@@mercurymachines4311

[@captainkirk7266]

i know this poem for so long but never thougt that it will start in ukraine, my country but here we go

[@saadjafri8131]

Crazy

[@bomb2982]

Start in Ukraine? Are you just completely dense to the climate collapsing and the sixth extinction event we are currently in??? Oh you don’t remember the endless imperial wars that the United States caused in Iraq and Afghanistan for 20+ years??? The dead 1 million Iraqi civilians you don’t remember Abu Ghraib? 7.25 minimum wage in the United States? 25,000 people die a day from hunger in the world ? Food being produced for profit not for life??? Oh you’ve realized because of Ukraine WTF LOL

[@tribudeuno]

“On a visionary flood of alcohol”… Leonard Cohen

[@jimbojet8728]

CB lived this, he knows it. The horror of it all and survived. Such writing should live on forever.

[@ItsameAlex]

awesome

[@40mes]

Wow, this sounds like it was written to describe today. Spot on.

[@shadyshah7389]

We are living this in Lebanon

[@alexh7140]

we are living it everywhere this is capitalism working its magic. hopefully everyone will see this soon.

[@tylerphillips4083]

@@alexh7140 capitalism isn’t the problem

[@jimw.4161]

Don't worry, Shady. The rest of the world will catch up to you very soon. 😥

[@jimw.4161]

​@@tylerphillips4083 Greedy politicians and the fools who continue to vote for them are the problems. By last count 81,000,000 of them! Soon to be 87,000,000 when you factor in the illegal immigrants recently arrived the last 2 years.

[@MrBlackva23]

Great mind

[@akshaymathapati483]

Fools into Rich Heroes.... kardashians come into mind 😶

[@jimw.4161]

Yes, and sadly, so many others!

[@BrazyBlazer]

Wow

[@one2three120]

Born like this Into this As the chalk faces smile As Mrs. Death laughs As the elevators break As political landscapes dissolve As the supermarket bag boy holds a college degree As the oily fish spit out their oily prey As the sun is masked We are Born like this Into this Into these carefully mad wars Into the sight of broken factory windows of emptiness Into bars where people no longer speak to each other Into fist fights that end as shootings and knifings Born into this Into hospitals which are so expensive that it's cheaper to die Into lawyers who charge so much it's cheaper to plead guilty Into a country where the jails are full and the madhouses closed Into a place where the masses elevate fools into rich heroes Born into this Walking and living through this Dying because of this Muted because of this Castrated Debauched Disinherited Because of this Fooled by this Used by this Pissed on by this Made crazy and sick by this Made violent Made inhuman By this The heart is blackened The fingers reach for the throat The gun The knife The bomb The fingers reach toward an unresponsive god The fingers reach for the bottle The pill The powder We are born into this sorrowful deadliness We are born into a government 60 years in debt That soon will be unable to even pay the interest on that debt And the banks will burn Money will be useless There will be open and unpunished murder in the streets It will be guns and roving mobs Land will be useless Food will become a diminishing return Nuclear power will be taken over by the many Explosions will continually shake the earth Radiated robot men will stalk each other The rich and the chosen will watch from space platforms Dante's Inferno will be made to look like a children's playground The sun will not be seen and it will always be night Trees will die All vegetation will die Radiated men will eat the flesh of radiated men The sea will be poisoned The lakes and rivers will vanish Rain will be the new gold The rotting bodies of men and animals will stink in the dark wind The last few survivors will be overtaken by new and hideous diseases And the space platforms will be destroyed by attrition The petering out of supplies The natural effect of general decay And there will be the most beautiful silence never heard Born out of that. The sun still hidden there Awaiting the next chapter.

[@sauravanand9100]

❤️

[@raininfernx4162]

🖤

[@RayRay-cq5ky]

That volta tho.

[@default_youtube_profile]

Why no one built a monument of this poet?

[@bigcatproductions2789]

🤯🤯 Drop the Big One Already ! 💀☠️🤯🥀🥀🥀🥀

[@harryit]

This was a warning and not humanities inescapable fate. The end of the world happens every day, to some, for some, and for all. The judgement is by the internal god for the things that we do against each other. We cause our own suffering with our hatreds, our disrespect for ourselves and our surroundings, and our corruption of the true holy grail, LOVE. LOVE your enemy. Pray for them. We're all flawed, human, and I'm no exception. "This song was made in NYC, of rich man and preachers, and slaves, and if Jesus was to preach, like he preached in Galilee, we would lay Jesus Christ in his grave." - Woody Guthrie

[@1976sprinter]

How did he predict all this

[@mercurymachines4311]

He looked all around him and he saw it.

[@yoboyluke9066]

This is dark

[@eleghari]

“The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduce them. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.” (Gustave Le Bon, 2009, A standard English translation of the work originally published in 1895 in France as La psychologie des foules).

[@robot7759]

Cheers in rip, Charles 🙏

[@zappozzz]

People forget when he wrote this.

[@T-ShawnLewis]

@Mark Archer 1993

[@richardmurphy9006]

Jesus Murphy Chuck you said it rest in peace

[@lozza901]

This.

[@pbghosh5305]

Sounds so much like Eliot's Hollow Men. Excellent!

[@NurulAmin-or6rl]

The fingers reach toward an unresponsive God.

[@jamerevs5996]

The birds of prey will be full of people and animals

[@peterbutler5354]

What is the name of the backing music

[@brandonmckinney4768]

Charles saw the hate in the world… and rote it through what it was…it’s not nonsense it’s truth…

[@othaner38]

I believe that, in the last days of the Roman Empire, someone used very similar words to describe the society. The fact is that we are living the last days of the Western Civilization and no one gives a damn. Just like in the last days of the Roman Empire.

[@trilliondollarman2514]

One of his last poems; 1992.

[@gabrielgarcia-fraire9504]

What movies are these?

[@jaredbond7908]

my last words

[@firstlast9312]

Sir this is a Wendy's

[@sirpanek3263]

Ay i guess its not all that bad now.

[@KonnyKhaos]

This reader did “Do not go gentle into that good night” and it is my favorite reading of that poem by Dylan Thomas. It used to be on youtube but is now gone. It used to give me great comfort. Anyone who could give me the name of this reader at the least, would be appreciated.

[@abysswatcherbutibitethedus872]

read description, its tom o bedlam

[@KonnyKhaos]

@@abysswatcherbutibitethedus872 Thanks

[@alexh7140]

he is explaining climate change and capitalism causing it in one poem. genius

[@brettharter143]

Hes on about nuclear war you child

[@alexh7140]

@@brettharter143 yes but the underline is what i said.

[@alexh7140]

@@brettharter143 multiple sources who understand poetry say the same thing that being, the meaning of the poem is to show "downfall of humanity and how priorities changed to greed, violence, and survival of the fittest." this is literally what i said.

[@brettharter143]

Thats not what you said at all though is it.

[@alexh7140]

@@brettharter143 priorities changed to greed and violence all caused by capitalism , and the rest of his poem he talks about violence and destruction of the society that once was, this is what I said.

[@tonywalton1052]

1:29 "the masses elevate fools into rich heroes"

[@abdelrahmanmustafa8937]

Very strong nihilist vibes

[@s.o.5366]

When was this written?

[@kosi5579]

1993 i guess

[@iandonnelly522]

The narrator aka Tom O Bedlam has the most beautiful voice....this dude is the embodiment of gravitas....he could read a receipt from a grocery store and it would sound like the Ten Commandments being espoused by god....Robert Frost reading his own poems sounded awful....sorry....beautifully written but by a professional orator like Tom....they become something else...

[@akbaralinarsi7887]

Sir music is too loud

[@OfficialWorldChampion]

the government being “60 years in debt” is likely a conservative talking point he somehow picked up somewhere and regurgitated here. still, amazing powerful work by bukowski

[@veritas2222]

It’s a fact, though, is it not?

[@AniketSingh-hr8mi]

goddamn

[@MychelleSeymourHeyyouremember]

I'm ashamed

[@avertingapathy3052]

Me too.

[@cherylcaardillo1702]

Thank God we have God

[@mrwamble]

And they said that God stopped sending us prophets 😂 no we just stopped listening

[@mamellomolokwane1762]

Although Charles bukowski is no doubt great writer I advice you to not his worldview as your own as his poems are nihilistic.

[@Poemsapennyeach]

Better without the images..I'd rather have my own. And the music should be more in the backgroung.

[@louiseshaner6024]

You could just read the book 🧐 & you really don't HAVE to watch the video, you could just listen to it.

[@jrstreets]

slowed way down and made intentionally evocative. listen to the original its more upbeat, despite the pessimistic theme. This is not a prophecy just a thought exercise.

[@raresabraleaks8216]

Yeah the original oration is jocular, but this style is much more grim.

[@randomcomputer7248]

@@raresabraleaks8216 Several on his poems are terrifying, including this one.

[@TheChad05gt]

Only Americans! Haha!!

[@DandelionScribe]

Please listen to the version read by Bukowski himself, this is terrible in comparison.

[@hemplife666]

Trash world.

[@diavolacciosatanasso]

Genius. How did he know?

[@vlachyna]

“To masses which elevate fools in to rich heroes” Ch. B.