Go to the bar. Allow the culture to wash over you, gain perspective by osmosis. To place yourself in a conduit of human interaction is to learn without making mistakes. There is power in contradictions, silence among noise, detachment amongst emotion; if the unsocial dissapear then where does that leave me? There is life in the middle of the oldest glacier, there is life on the vents of the deepest ocean trenches, can there not be life on a lone barstool? I’ve forgotten. Perhaps I’ve made a mistake, maybe I cannot learn without interaction. A life of missed opportunities results in a continuous existence of apology. I’m sorry that I’ve lost my ability to react… but a smile is all it takes to mend a broken heart. Sometimes a glance is enough to change a mood. The un-reactive are stuck in a cycle of apologies and gratifications. Thank you, I'm sorry, thank you, I'm sorry than...
"Is anyone sitting here?" I know it without looking, she is beautiful, she is sexy, another woman of my dreams. I shake my head without making eye contact. It's no use trying to talk over the music anyway, what good is having a conversation when you...
"So are you from Seward?" She has to shout just so I hear her, she has pushed the barstool to the side and is leaning, her back to the bar. She talks without looking at me, head bobbing slightly as Hobo Jim belts out another Bob Dylan tune, eyes sliding over the faces of the crowd.
(to be continued)
3 Comments:
Ever considered writing about some exposure/events that you've had in a bar. I just re-read this post today and was thinking about it tonight. There's serious potential for this type of thing. Just bar encounters, I guess. I don't read it about it too much, at least from things that I read...some guy could go to a bar and philosophize. I guess Kerouac does that a few times, there is mention in "Orpheus Emerged" of some sailor and some guy meeting in a bar. This is a great way to start stories too. If it worked for our anonymous author of Beowulf to relate tales with mead, it might make sense for us to do the same.
Specifically, I think you might be able to do more with "osmosis" here, being as it's about absorption...absorption of alcohol into the bloodstream, absorption of ideas/etc.
Your new post includes something about the drowning of your nephew. Sorry to hear about that. That's the worst thing anyone wants to hear. I don't mean to try to torque it into something it's not but it could be a dynamic for somebody "in the bar", along with any other tragedies you yourself have experienced. Ghost stories, etc... Just throwing out ideas, that's all. That's what I'm here for.
Again, sorry to hear about the nephew. That really does throw a wrench in life. And four...wow. I can't imagine.
I'm liking it. "Howl" by Ginsberg uses a rhythmic device in that he begins each line (initially) with "who..." "who..." - it's not the same, but "bar" here could achieve almost the same power of repetition. "back to the bar..." "go to the bar" "barstool".
Keep it up.
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