Bukowski: Poetry from the Dirty Side of Life
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| Keyboard of Woodstock typewriter from the 1940s - Public Domain. Source: Wikipedia Commons. |
Charles Bukowski was not your common poet. Harsh, irreverent, sometimes offensive. A bard from the underworld. A rulebreaker revealing realities through the unadorned language of the streets.
On poetry, he screams in "O We Are The Outcasts".
ah, christ, what a CREW:
more
poetry, always moreP O E T R Y.
"What Can We Do?" attacks our humanity.
when activated it's best at brutality,
selfishness, unjust judgments, murder.
Human beings are not spared in "The Genius Of The Crowd".
there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average
human being to supply any given army on any given day
His advice is profound.
beware the preachersbeware the knowersbeware those who are always reading booksbeware those who either detest povertyor are proud of it
On women, he said in "Back luck with the girls".
good weatheris likegood women-it doesn't always happenand when it doesit doesn'talways last.
In "How Is Your Heart?" talks from experience.
what matters most ishow well youwalk through thefire.
Whispered a fascinating end in "Love and Fame and Death".
the way to end a poem like thisis to become suddenlyquiet.
You may like or hate Bukowski, but will agree with this:
We're all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn't. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing.
