The Crunch (first version) by Charles Bukowski (read by Tom O'Bedlam)

This is the original version of The Crunch. There were three versions in all. Here's a discussion about the changing text of The Crunch
bukowskiforum.com/threads/the-...
and all three versions side by side here:
bukowski.net/poems/crunches.php
It's offensive and it means to be offensive. I left out two lines that are too offensive for most people. Bukowski himself took them out of later versions - but for the sake of completeness:
"many old women rubbing rosaries
when they'd prefer to be rubbing cocks"
Here's Charles Bukowski reading it:
www.dailymotion.com/video/x20i...
Here's Bono reading it:
• The Crunch: Bono read ...
The stills for contemporary atmosphere are from two movies of the same year.
Taxi Driver with Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster.
Marathon Man with Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier
Too much
too little
or not enough
too fat
too thin
or nobody
laughter or
tears
or immaculate
non-concern
haters
lovers
armies running through streets of blood
waving winebottles
bayoneting and fucking virgins
or an old guy in a cheap room
with a photograph of Marilyn Monroe
many old guys in cheap rooms without
any photographs at all
there is a loneliness in this world so great
that you can see it in the slow movements of
the hands of a clock
there is a loneliness in this world so great
that you can see it blinking in neon signs
in Vegas, in Baltimore, in Munich
there are people so tired
so strafed
so mutilated by love or no
love
that buying a bargain can of tuna
in a supermarket
is their greatest moment
their greatest victory
we don't need new governments
new revolutions
we don't need new men
new women
we don't need new ways
wife-swaps
waterbeds
good Columbian
coke
water pipes
dildoes
rubbers with corkscrew stems
watches that give you the date
people are not good to each other
one on one.
Marx be damned
the sin is not the totality of certain systems.
Christianity be damned
the sin is not the killing of a God.
people are just not good to each other.
we are afraid
we think that hatred means strength
we think that New York City is the greatest
city in America.
what we need is less brilliance
what we need is less instruction
what we need are less poets
what we need are less Bukowskies
what we need are less Billy Grahams
what we need is more
beer
a typist
more finches
more green-eyed whores who don't eat your heart
like a vitamin pill
we don't think about the terror of one person
aching in one place
alone
untouched
unspoken to
watering a plant
being without a telephone that will never
ring
because there isn't one.
more haters than lovers
slices of doom like taffeta
people are not good to each other
people are not good to each other
people are not good to each other
and the beads swing and the clouds cloud
and the dogs piss upon the roses
and the killer beheads the child like taking a bite
out of an ice cream cone
and the ocean comes in and out
in and out
under the direction of a senseless moon
and people are not good to each other.

[@rb5337]

Holy fuck what just happened to me listening to this! Why did I cry?

[@valeriedubois8955]

Tom O'Bedlam has the best poetry reading voice.....or at least, the best Buk voice.....so good that I think Buk must have sounded like that. ;)

[@victoriaparker2705]

Really like this poet, thank you for reading his works.

[@demonburnside]

Your taste in poetry is amazing and your voice is so soothing.

[@klabauterbaer]

Your voice is perfect for buk. thanks for your great work!

[@CBfrmcardiff]

Thank you for that. Your voice fits perfectly with that poem.

[@mr.coolmug3181]

Inspiring and beautifully read, thank you.

[@erikacaubet-bachem8611]

"And people are not good to each other" A so sad view of this world

[@oceanhudson]

Erika CAUBET-BACHEM an Honest view .

[@atheist1941]

One of the great elegies to pessimism, and an ode to despair, from the great Bukowski. I'd like Tom to read some Ken Smith.

[@davidrosen2705]

i can manage without the images but ur voice is super

[@tiamem]

Be excellent to each other.

[@johnnyblaime]

Nobody can surpass that poem..Excellent. .

[@pr0nkj3wail]

Thank you, Tom

[@muggedinmadrid]

tom i love everything you read. what a great voice. are you a professional vocalist?

[@chewy_rex9426]

VERY GOOD VIDEO I REALLY LIKE ALL IT SAYS IT IS DOING TONS OF GOOD FOR ME

[@Caligula138]

Tom O Bedlam you are great. Could you please read the poem Tom O Bedlam that you are named after?

[@SpokenVerse]

Sure - here it is: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i5fGlpyDmplondE

[@vincentkline5338]

the reading is very nice and it's a good study in despair... i could pass on the visual images.

[@simonxag]

I didn't like all of the images (Marathon Man? ) but your voice so suits Bucowski.

[@SpokenVerse]

They're from movies of the same year the poem was written, to give some idea of the spirit of the age. Maybe they influenced him, maybe not.

[@johnk.lindgren5940]

kiitos

[@bravojonessniper6028]

Good Colombian coke more beer that's all I will remember.

[@bindon8581]

Sad I can't respond to the misanthrope Bukowski in kind, Tom. Not that enamored of Larkin, either. They were both miserable Ezras. [ if post is just pending approval, forgive me ] And Charles was a woman beater, once he'd had a few. Why would I respect anything he wrote? Larkin was jaundiced, but it's a point of view. Or, I may be jaundiced. It's the Leibniz v. Voltaire way of thinking.

[@ramonalejandrosuare]

I always find it instructive to address the ideas instead of the man. Truth is not the strict purview of gods and saints. If there is anything to gleam from Bukowski's life and work, its this fact.

[@craigsmith7470]

bin don Separate the man from the artist or better still avoid acquainting yourself with works of misanthropes and pessimists. If you fish for something to hate you will find it and rage endlessly like Larkin or Bukowski. The difference between you and them will be the fact that they had no illusions about death and humanity. Always remove the name if your goal is to enjoy art unless if you are an activist.

[@agnesenazare4195]

I also don't understand where all are getting ideas that he was a misanthrope. He said it himself - "I don't hate people. I just feel better when they aren't around." :) There is a very big difference between a misanthrope and a person who enjoys his company. And artists usually do, and especially writers.