Charles Bukowski -- Come on in!

I think good poetry should startle, shatter and,
yes, entertain while getting as close to the truth as
possible.
I can get all the comfort I need from a good
cigar.
from on the sunny banks of the university

Charles Bukowski, taking a jab at those teaching English Lit whose writing is getting ever more "comfortable."


I hope I don't lose any readers by including Bukowski in my "most enjoyed" list. But the truth is that I really like the earthiness in his poems, and I would not be true to myself if I left him out because (quite) a few people are offended by him.

I am no poetry buff. To illustrate: Two weeks ago, I borrowed a book from my library with a title that was something like "The Best American Poetry of 2005," and I had to return it unread because even though I looked and looked and I couldn't find a single poem that I understood.

Like I said I am really not much of a poetry kind of guy. I read maybe 1 or 2 books of poetry a year. Though not a hardcore Bukowski addict, whenever I see a new book by Bukowski, I usually pick it up. The guy died in 1994, and so I am always excited to be reading new poems by him in 2006.

Charles Bukowski, for those who haven't read him or heard of him (and I really think everyone should read at least one book of his and decide for themselves if they like him or not) has the reputation as the Big Bad Boy of Poetry. And many will say the reputation is well deserved. (Bukowski is to poetry what George Carlin is to stand-up.) There is also the widely held belief that his poems are misogynistic, and perhaps even misanthropic. I will leave all those labels and discussions to the erudite Lit critics.

I basically like him mainly because his poems are so readable! I love his no-pretensions no-gimmicks approach (though that might in itself be one neat gimmick.) I am drawn to his topics -- hard-living, hard drinking, all sorts of women, horse racing and gambling -- because they are a world removed from my own rather subdued, suburban life. There is a lot of humor in his poems, and I enjoy the way he uses the device of self-reference in so many of his poems.

I love the way he demystifies poems and his irreverence towards other poets and critics.

from
I have continued regardless
[...]
let them all rail:
if it wasn't me,
it would just be someone
else.

these gossips and complainers,
what have they accomplished
anyway?

never having risen
they
can neither
slip nor
fall.

And I especially love the fact that his poems (all of them without exception) are so wholesome. They have great endings and there is a sense of completeness to each poem, which is such a rarity in today's poems.

That he really cares about poems comes through in many of his poems about poems.

from
a note upon modern poesy
[...]
poetry is still moving slowly forward, I guess.
and when your average garage mechanics
start bringing books of poesy to read
on their lunch breaks
then we'll know for sure we're moving in
the right
direction
[...]

Until I did some research I hadn't realized that there were so many books about Bukowski. May be I will get the time to read some of them, someday. Perhaps someone reading this knows if Bukowski edited his poems. He probably did, and I must be naive to imagine that poems just flowed out of his pen -- wonderful and whole -- every few minutes. That's way it seems to me whenever I read him.

If you are new to Bukowski, check out "Come On In" or any of his other books of poems. And do let me know whether or not you liked them by leaving a comment here.

I can't think of another poet who makes people as
angry as I do.
I enjoy it

from the x-bum

Category: Books, Poetry. Links: Bukowski: Born into This;orange county register