What image(s) come to mind when you read this poem?

A vacuum.

What comes to mind for me is the loss of my brother and the rupture in my family when my Ex moved out. What it says to me is that the grief will always be a part of me that I will return to from time to time even though I am generally at peace.

I don’t know if that’s the kind of response you’re looking for.

I see sort of a gap in space inside the chest, that looks like night sky with stars.

That we can always have something not quite fulfilled or that is missing in our life even when we experience joy.

I’m looking for tattoo ideas. I guess I should have put that in the question.

@product Have I offended you in some way or do you see a period when you read this poem?

A heart shape with a missing jagged piece. Maybe a sun around it.

Demons whispering into your ears from the shadows, trying to corrupt your mind, converting you into a willing seedbed for Satan’s son.

Oh!

There is just something insidiously nefarious with words and phrases being repeated, and the gaps between them

How about an eye with tears?

A broken heart with the words “I carry you with me.”

The image of a person that was close to me that died in a plane crash and never returned 30 years ago.

.

Also reminder me of a fav poem
BY E. E. CUMMINGS
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

An unborn child.

I just got an image from a Paul Simon song, Graceland, that relates:

“And I say losing love is like a window in your heart
Everybody sees you’re blown apart
Everybody sees the wind blow.”

So perhaps a heart with an empty window inside it?

Sounds like a description of depression. It reminds me of my favorite description of depression, from Sarah Silverman, who said that depression is feeling homesick when you are already home.

It reminds me of another poem that used the image of a river and its sound to signify endless regret. It’s not easy to capture in a tattoo however.

Bukowski had a lifelong affair with alcohol.

Many alcoholics express the disease as a hole in the heart that can never be filled. It is not a treasure; it is a lamented loss that can only be resolved by long term sobriety.

Heart with a jagged hole.

The second one of these images is pretty powerful:

https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=AOaemvIPGMj2byVMjx2AAbfm_MVTZ2KSCQ:1632861635152&source=univ&tbm=isch&q=heart+with+a+hole+in+it+emoji&fir=wEIvf_VJ6zDwRM%252CZy1QeoGfBhax3M%252C_%253BTrEnAtHo89hKgM%252CmfnfDxB1gPHXcM%252C_%253BDx307Is-q7zacM%252Ck1Tob-LR9s5uJM%252C_%253Bs-WLn5dTNmyYRM%252CEmz4_ydRLNDgEM%252C_%253Bk0hyYb6_I_Z9YM%252CXmMetJu3ETbLVM%252C_%253BgjOk9_Ec9cIjGM%252CSMruntH1MMhGaM%252C_%253BLqAuaCJ3L7YMCM%252CXmMetJu3ETbLVM%252C_%253BjvV9GYSiYVMXHM%252CNhME10V6b_QZSM%252C_%253BSvCt75SkP1RN7M%252C8NE6hggE5kslGM%252C_%253BECZOO6W0-e0DRM%252CXqE7pS9T--qwvM%252C_%253BR4RVuvEdi8xp7M%252CwefLsfRMOm7FdM%252C_%253BMGiEU8rjWqwldM%252CauJrpmbQr9HJRM%252C_%253BDidB4xIyTA4Q-M%252CDhAgWpZiZlXffM%252C_%253BpkOsbNsZ-uoq3M%252C-3u-nv_F7YozM%252C&usg=AI4_-kRZy9VphP6esC_OYco3DUAjcHl5EA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjm2-vNw6LzAhXoFVkFHSKqDIUQ7Al6BAgGEEo&biw=1280&bih=522&dpr=1.25

It reminds me of a line from a old (1910) Irish-American song Mother Machree:

“There’s a spot in my heart that no colleen may own…”

The Bukowski poem reminds me of a loss of a loved one who will never be forgotten.

I’ve been trying to avoid a heart because, you know, it’s a heart. Currently my artist has created a mosaic heart with pieces missing but I am just not 100% on it and I want to be 100% for a tattoo.

^Definitely since it’s forever.

Hot Pockets.

Maybe an endless sea of stars, or a sea, plain or desert, with a large black or even empty space with a symbol of your loved one, or your own representation of yourself there. Like a small yellow lifeboat in a seascape. A field of tulips with a rose. Whatever suits your tastes.
Possibly monochrome with that space or symbol a vibrant color.
You should Google images for time and space if you prefer symbols that look neat. Maybe all the astrological signs with your special persons in red? Kinda cheesy.

A window? You could choose what you are looking at through the glass. Day time scene or night time.

One pane could be broken. Play on words, pane/pain.

The window could be open or closed.

It could have you looking out.

In the context of getting a tattoo, what about the Los Angeles skyline rotated 90 degrees. Mirrored on a vertical line of symmetry. Filled in with a solid color or ombré. With the quote in that space not inked, as negative space.

Just reading the first line brought an image to mind: an empty, shriveled uterus.

What about doing one of Bukowski’s line drawings of flowers with inverted colors? (Uninked on solid background.)

Or continue the line drawing into script writing of partial quote?

@smudges ”...an empty, shriveled uterus.”
I’ll be sooooo surprised if she doesn’t go with that one! ;-0
For all I know, Bukowski might have already sketched one.

I remember reading some of his work in the LA Free Press, which was an ancient hippie, progressive anti-war paper that used to have advertisements for the Mothers of Invention concerts.

How about a deep tunnel with a heart-shaped entrance?

There’s not much imagery in that poem though. Would it help to look for another one about love and loss—there must be thousands—and see how someone else has expressed that feeling?

@KNOWITALL I had been thinking about that. Maybe an anatomical heart with a black hole in colorful space, or black and white. Similar to this. Or maybe no heart. Thanks for the suggestion.

@kneesox I have loved this poem since I was a teenager. It has always spoken to me, and every time I read it I feel understood.

@raum Wow, that’s amazing but probably more intricate and too large for the outside of my forearm.

I really like @zenveo’s avatar and think it says a lot. Perhaps something like that?

Or a phrase from the poem in a spiral?

Just found this and I love it.

I’ll let ya’ll know what I decide.

I really like that one, too.

That could turn out really cool.
Keep us posted!

If I weren’t such a wimp when it comes to pain, I’d get one of those very beautiful outer space tattoos! Definitely.

@tinyfaery I love the space link you posted, the anatomical heart could be cool. Maybe shrivelled with a bullet hole or teeth marks. Lots you could do.