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From Last Call: The Bukowski Legacy Continues (© 2012 Lummox Press)
Last Call is an anthology of current poets and writers who have been influenced by Charles Bukowksi. The Bukowski Legacy Continues is a second, expanded printing which includes extra poems, essays, and such. I originally submitted the following for the 2004 first edition, Last Call: The Legacy of Charles Bukowski. Back then I was writing as Isaac Edwards.
The Artist
I was reading an essay
by Mark T. Conrad
comparing Bart Simpson's
antics
to the great, bad boy
philosopher,
Friedrich Nietzshe's
preachings.
Well, it turns out
I'm not the only one
obsessed with reality,
this Fred guy is famous
for it.
I've never read much
philosophy, to me the whole
genre represents the stoners
of the doctorate degree world,
the most useless
of the self-proclaimed intelligencia;
I have to wonder if these philosophy guys
even believe what they spout, or if they're
merely out to impress the girls.
Anyway, I'm reading, and I find out:
I'm Nietzsche's ideal ... yeah,
imagine my surprise. I am The Artist,
the self-overcoming, self-creating
Individual, who forges new values,
who makes an artwork
out of his life.
This is me.
I have no religion, no political party,
I have yet to find an organized group
I can wholly believe in, only myself.
I won't join the Independent
Writers of Southern California.
What the fuck do those people
think independent means?
All this time I've been
cultivating my simple beliefs and
unbeknownst to me, I have become
Fucking Nietzsche's ideal.
I am the artwork I create
right here in the written word
and tonight I feel pretty good about it.
- Isaac Edwards