Bukowski

[TranquillityBase]

I'm taking a break after having read about 2,000 pages of Charles Bukowski poems.  Obviously I've become a fan, but I am curious what others in Pig Pen village think of him.

Rowens said somewhere that he "casts a spell" and I'm certainly enthralled.  Rowens also said he tells stories as opposed to writing poems (I'm paraphrasing from memory, perhaps wrongly).  That is a fair criticism I think.

[rowens]

Bukowski is the Chaser, that was one of the chapters in one of my unfinished books. All of high art is in his writings, though he's not trying to emulate them. No need for Negative Capability or traditional skill. One of the Bumblers. Someone who read the classics inside and out, ignored his contemporaries with appropriate contempt, didn't bother if he understood the classics, took from them all he needed to write about himself. Had what you need for the philosophical type: Themes and Concepts; the poetic types: thoughts, feelings and line breaks; the fiction type: stories. Joe [sic] Fante, Knut Hamsun, Ernest Hemingway, Dostoevsky, Celine, Lawrence, Artaud and Kafka. Those were always there to inspire and come back to. Everyone else was target practice. Poems about the romantic suffering artist, really suffer, make yourself suffer and others, learn how to turn a phrase. Tell the truth, make it more interesting if need be, be able to turn a phrase that sticks though nothing else does. Never compromise. Compromise means death.
  The thing that makes Charles Bukowski stories lasting is that they are fun while reading and forgettable, so the next time you read them, it's as though for the first time. All books and movies that aestheticize places and scenes are worthwhile. You can imagine yourself in a Bukowski dreamworld while stranded at a strip mall across from an abandoned Kmart and use your last few dollars to get a beer at the rundown Ruby Tuesday where all the waitresses are over 30 and enjoy yourself and your aches and regrets.

[Wjames]

I think the character in his poems captures something bleak and beautiful most people can relate to at some level.

Sometimes he goes a litle over the top writing in to his persona for me, and it makes me roll my eyes a bit, but the poems are usually still entertaining.

I read a few of his poems after opening this thread, I really like this poem of his.

Bluebird

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 whores 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.

then I put him back,
but he’s still 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?

----

I think that poem sort of sums up how I feel about his writing - it's really good, but there's a bit of a wall he puts up with his persona, sometimes it doesn't feel genuine. Of course, he's made way better poetry than anything I've ever done (or will do).

[Tiger the Lion]

I posted this somewhere else recently, but here it is again.

[brynmawr1]

I haven't read much Bukowski really only aware of him since TqB's poem.  I have been reading Mary Oliver lately and was thinking how different they are but have realized they share some similarities in that they both have a largely narrative style that at times is more story telling.  They just studied different ecologies, but both are just trying to figure out where they fit within their respective habitats.

I enjoy each for their different sensibilities.