Style, by Charles Bukowski

style is the answer to everything---
a fresh way to approach a dull or a
dangerous thing.
to do a dull thing with style
is preferable to doing a dangerous thing
without it.

Joan of Arc had style
John the Baptist
Christ
Socrates
Caesar,
Garcia Lorca.

style is the difference,
a way of doing,
a way of being done.

6 herons standing quietly in a pool of water
or you walking out of the bathroom naked
without seeing
me.

..........from the book "Mockingbird Wish Me Luck", page 156.

This poem reminded me of the Heidegger article we discussed in class, "Off the Beaten Track". Heidegger wrote, "To be sure, the painter, too, makes use of pigment; he uses it, however, in such a way that the colors are not used up but begin, rather, for the first time, to shine. To be sure, the poet, too, uses words, not, however, like ordinary speakers and writers who must use them up, but rather in such a way that only now does the word become and remain truly a word.

Bukowski also said, "An intellectual is a person who says a simple thing in a difficult way. An artist is a person who says a difficult thing in a simple way." There is a way, as Heidegger described, to build a temple of words that contains within it the Holy Spirit, or whatever the hell you want to call it.