"Don't Try"...

...reads Charles Bukowski's (1920-1994) epitaph.
"If you spend all your time trying, then all you're doing is trying. So don't try. Just do."

Recently, a friend who's working on his dissertation sent this philosophical poem, "Roll the Dice" from What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk Through the Fire by Charles Bukowski . Very much like the poet himself, a postgrad's spirit of perseverance and faith in self can be summed up by this poem.

Roll the Dice
if you’re going to try, go all the way.
otherwise, don’t even start.
if you’re going to try, go all the way.
this could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives, jobs
and maybe your mind.
go all the way.
it could mean not eating for 3 or 4 days.
it could mean freezing on a park bench.
it could mean jail,
it could mean derision,
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 and 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.
do it, do it,
do it.
all the way,
all the way.
you will ride life straight to perfect laughter,
it's the only good fight there is.