Coal

Bukowski

Oct 25, 07:33 Literature

When Charles Bukowski was 16, his father lost his job but still pretended to go to work every day.

It seems like someone ought to write a poem about Bukowski where roughly 2/3 of the lines begin with the word “Bukowski”, like Allen Ginsberg’s America.

Bukowski your father was a pill that walked and talked
and did nothing to relieve the headaches.
Bukowski he got lodged in your throat and grew arms and threw you out.
Bukowski will you ever write a publishable poem?
Bukowski you give all of us hope.
You deliver letters and bleed out your ulcer.
You lost your virginity to a 300 pound woman when you were 23 years old.
Bukowski, you had a choice: deliver these letters or starve.
You must be starving, but at least your beer gut keeps you warm.
Bukowski, you are old and creepy looking but your mother smiled, so maybe we understand your smile.
Bukowski, we thank you for your fine poems, and excuse the other ones.
Bukowski don’t you know? You died in 1994, not 1955 or 1992 or any time in between.

Enough of that nonsense. Just to be clear it was written on the fly and I make no pretensions of having achieved anything remotely poetic. I just really wanted to pretend, even if only for a moment, that I’d come up with the voice Ginsberg used when he wrote America. Of course, that poem is self-reflexive (the word is intentional) and has real content. This is just tripe.

Hopefully it inspires you to navigate away from this page and check out some Bukowski.

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Speaking of Allen Ginsberg, you ought to be told that what this post is really about is me putting off a much more substantial post (including words that actually mean something!) about the Beats. I’ve been meaning to write it for over a month now. Hopefully that’s up soon.

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A Fun FYI: Buck65 cites Bukowski as not only a source of inspiration, but the person he’d most like to sit down for coffee and chocolate bars with. The song The Floor, which appears on Secret House Against the World is an adaptation of Bukowski’s poem, “a smile to remember” (see link above).

Buck (Richard Terfry) also says that Mikail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita is his favourite book, and Vladimir Nabakov his favourite author. Meaning he has an uncommon palatte but good taste nonetheless, which is reflected in his music.

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Recommended Reading: Three Oranges.