are there things you dislike about poetry

[heslopian]

yes but his stuff was about him, his life, and not about how he helped pull men out of or into depravity. it was about how he saw himself and others. not how if it wasn't for him all drunks would be able to seek help etc. i use to hate him, but i think that's because i didn't actually know anything about his poetry, all i ever heard about him was what others said. i doubt maya could write a cat poem like his.

I see Bukowski as being in a different league to most other writers. I don't mean that as an indication of quality, he was just so deliberately outside every movement and style that, for better or worse, he stood alone. I still love his work because it truly captures something. It feels like the record of a life, infused with small, intimate, beautiful observations. I doubt Maya could approach Bukowski's intimacy and honesty, let alone his cat poems.