Charles Bukowski
The poet’s secret pact
By Anna Daniels
Brent Beltrán is the Wednesday editor du jour, so I gave him a heads up yesterday that Bukowski’s poem would be ready to post today. Brent shot back an email with “In honor of Bukowski I’ll get blindingly drunk and bang my head on the keyboard in hopes that a poem appears on my computer screen.” I sense that the man who wrote “Poetry is what happens when nothing else can” would approve of the homage.
Much of Charles Bukowski‘s poetry expresses his contempt of hypocrisy, willful stupidity, gratuitous judgments, posturings of superiority and the easy sell-out. He casts a pretty broad net. Bluebird however is an intimate conversation between the poet self and the self that needs to care about book sales in Europe; it is about the costs and compromises required to keep both alive. Then Bukowski delivers up the poem‘s unforgettable ending that speaks more of resolve than resignation.
and it’s nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don’t
weep, do
you?
There is an interesting animation of Bluebird by Monica Umba (2009). Her work has a musical accompaniment but does not include the actual poetry. Umba’s work was later re-interpretated/altered with the voice of Harry Dean Stanton added to the animation which can be seen below.
Anna Daniels
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Bukowski had perfect pitch for recording the hypocrisy of ordinary speach. He could be surprisingly tender too. I remember a story , which may be called Christmas in Prison,( although I know that is also the title of a John Prine song) that is absolutely matter of factly hilarious , and ends with a a gentlness we don’t expect from Bukowski.
I left a moribund western Pennsylvania mill town too, for sunny Colorado but I check in with San Diego Free Press to see the latest musings from Anna Daniels. She points me in directions I didn’t know I needed to go. And makes me laugh and nod. And reflect. She shares treasures with generosity. Muchas gracias.