Poetry #1

1. The commercial steals the poem The Laughing Heart, by Charles Bukowski.
2. This poem within this commercial is extremely ironic because what the corporation is trying to do is make you buy their jeans, but why should you? "Your life is your life"- you shouldn't let anyone tell you what to do. You shouldn't let society influence what you wear. (Heck, I don't wear Levi's and this commercial sure as hell isn't going to make me!)
3. Charles Bukowski, apparently, was a drunkard, a hypocrite, and a racist. I don't know for sure, because I've obviously never met him, and the internet can only spill so many truths. But if that opinion of him is right, then I think the poem does, somehow, reflect Bukowski's reputation.
Bukowski was said to show up drunk to every interview and reading. Drunks are most often than not lost in their dark minds, thinking that drowning themselves in alcohol will somehow solve all their problems.
"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."
This portion speaks to me because to me, it conveys the meaning that you can do whatever you want with yourself, based on what you want to do as a person. But being drunk all the time isn't freedom, it's stupidity.
4. For questions #1 and #3, I looked up the first few lines of the poem, which brought me to the page . Then, I searched "reputation of Charles Bukowski", and clicked on the first link being . The previous link was a rant against Bukowski by a Timothy Green.