It’s ten in the morning, my favorite time to read. Before I begin reading I have a pen and notebook, and laptop. Last week, texts were exchanged. My partner has chosen selected poems by Charles Bukowski. I was given a  paperback and was instructed to read pages 199 – 129.  I am not familiar with Charles Bukowski. From my partner’s blog I get the impression that Bukowski is a dark writer. Before I begin to read the selections, I reread my partner’s first blog on content area. I found it to be a little confusing.  I was instructed to start on page 199, but the blog starts with a poem on page 172 and skips to p.215. The second blog seems more confusing. Poems on pages 173 and 187 are referred to but nothing from p. 199 -219, the pages that I was instructed to read.

So, I begin with  the link provided in blog 2 for a biography about Charles Bukowski.  From the bio, I write down  what Time magazine has called him a,  ”laureate of American lowlife”. I also looked up the meaning of laureate. Laureate means honored (laurel wreath).  Now I have some idea of Bukowski life and I am ready to read his work.

First I skim through the selected pages and count 11 poems. Since this assignment is to run for three weeks I decide to do 4 poems a week, with 3 this week. Today I will be reading “notes on some poems”, “the buzz”, and ” a simple kindness”  from pages 199 – 204.

I stop at the end of the first sentence of note on some poems and look up the word feign on the internet and reread the sentence with the definition. I notice that the poem is actually sentences written vertically. The first break of the poem the author is saying that poets write about feeling they pretend to have and he has done the same thing.;” I wrote  5 comfortable, clever poems”.In the next stanza, Bukowski explains that 3 or 4 of his poems will probably get published even though they are not about real emotion. Bukowski continues on to say that poems without real emotion are dull and unreadable and those type of writers should not write. He concludes that poetry magazines are dull and one wastes their time reading them. Personally I have to disagree with Bukoswki. 

The next poem is the buzz. After reading the first stanza twice, I visualize Bukowski  as a gambler who visits and spends his days  (for at least 20 years) at a horse race track because he know the jock’s agents and trainers. In the next stanza Bukowski describes the gamblers he sees that come everyday until they lose everything as losers and wonders from where do they get their money. I was wondering the same about Bukowski, how much money does he have? does he see himself as a looser also? I assume he must win many of his bets. He describes himself as a fixture and goes to the track during any type of weather, nothing can keep him away. I finish reading the poem. The poem is straightforward. He describes the races as being very short about a minute long, and a least a half hour wasted waiting between races. The point of the poem is the rush feeling one gets watching the race, and waiting for the photo finish result.

The last poem for the week is a simple kindness. To me Bukowski’s poems are short stories, they are sentences written vertically. His writing is straightforward. After reading the first half, I visualize Bukoswki on the sofa, three in the morning (as the poem states) drunk with an empty bottle on the floor and the second bottle half full, previewing his poems. One of which reminds him of immortality. He seems to like the poem, but decides to tear it up when he is sober, thinking the poem is “sentimental trash”. That is all for this post.