The following talk was given at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California.

Please visit our website at audioderma.org.

Okay, so welcome, good morning, good afternoon, good evening.

Let's start by rereading this poem by Charles Bukowski called Bluebird.

I admit that I didn't even know until last night that Charles Bukowski was actually a well-known poet.

This, you know, poetry isn't something that I've studied, it's more something that touches me on it.

And I say poems.

And I heard this poem just recently and somebody was reading it and I felt really touched by it.

It wasn't until last night that I discovered, oh, this Charles Bukowski person is actually a really well-known American poet.

So the poem goes like this. It's called Bluebird by Charles Bukowski.

There's a Bluebird in my heart that wants to get out, but I'm too tough for him.

I say stay in there. I'm not going to let anybody see you.

There's a Bluebird in my heart that wants to get out, but I pour whiskey on him and inhale cigarette smoke and the horrors and the bartenders and the grocery clerks.

Never know that he's in there.

There's a Bluebird in my heart that wants to get out, but I'm too tough for him.

I say stay down. Do you want to mess me up?

You want to screw up the works? You want to blow my book sales in Europe?

There's a Bluebird in my heart that wants to get out, but I'm too clever.

I only let him out at night sometimes when everybody's asleep.

I say, I know that you're there, so don't be sad that I put him back, but he's singing a little in there.

I haven't quite let him die, and we sleep together like that with our secret pact.

And it's nice enough to make a man weep, but I don't weep, do you?

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