Anatomy/List/Catalog Poem

If you're going to try, go all the way.
Otherwise don't even start.
This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives, jobs.
And maybe your mind.
It could mean not eating for three or four days.
It could mean freezing on a park bench.
It could mean jail.
It could mean derision.
It could mean mockery, isolation.
Isolation is the gift.
All the others are a test of your endurance.
Of how much you really want to do it.
And you'll do it, despite rejection in the worst odds.
And it will be better than anything else you can imagine.
If you're going to try, go all the way.
There is no other feeling like that.
You will be alone with the gods.
And the nights will flame with fire.
You will ride life straight to perfect laughter.
It's the only good fight there is.

- Henry Chinaski from the film "Factotum"

I chose my poem from the film adaptation of Charles Bukowski's book: "Factotum". I'm not sure if this was written by Bukowski or Brent Hamer and Jim Stark, because I don't remember it from the novel. It seems that this poem started out as a list, but then turns into directions. Directions for life. Once Isolation is mention, Chinaski goes on a new tangeant. That is a good example of the true essence of the character.