Photo-Artistry by kenne
Charles Bukowski: A Bio Poem
yes,
there was a
Charles Bukowski
sad eyes
weary voice
a poet-recluse
writing about
down and outs
skid row
alcohol
relationships with women
German American
raised catholic
abused
shy, alienated
teenage acne
desperate days of the
great depression
attended
Los Angeles City College
art,
journalism
literature
flirted with the far-right
grew bored
failed a physical and
psychological exam
classified 4-f
“on a Santa Monica Monday.”
first story
published at 24
grew disillusioned
quit writing
“on the sidewalk and in the sun”
ten-year drunk
bleeding ulcer
nearly died
begin writing poetry
first wife
small-town Texas poet
decapitated in India
religious zealots
obscure cult
traumatized by wife’s death
resulting in a powerful series of poems
“I hold fast to me, that’s all there is”
series of muses
a daughter
ten years with post office
wrote a column
“notes of a dirty old man”
quit the post office
decided to starve
full-time writer
a loner
unable to live alone
“because I’ve got
a pocket full of dreams….”
— kenne
Charles Bukowski in Ham On Rye writes of Henry Chinaski, his raw voice alter ego having a beer with Becker:
“. . . I’d like to be a correspondent in Washington, D.C. I’d like to be where big things are happening.”
“Washington’s crap, Becker.”
“And women? Marriage? Children?”
“Crap.”
“Yeah? Well, what do you want?”
“To hide.”
“You poor fuck. You need another beer.”
“All right.”
The beer arrived.
Source: Booktryst
“The difference between life and art is art is more bearable.”
– Charles Bukowski
Related articles
- Happy Birthday to Charles Bukowski (silverbirchpress.wordpress.com)
- Charles Bukowski’s F.B.I. file (dangerousminds.net)
- Don’t Do It (kimberlin.wordpress.com)
- “Notes from a Dirty Old Man”: Charles Bukowski’s Lost Cartoons from the 60s and 70s (openculture.com)
- Charles Bukowski Manuscripts Online (mediabistro.com)
- Charles Bukowski: Don’t Waste Your Life (99u.com)
- so you want to be a writer? poem by Charles Bukowski (silverbirchpress.wordpress.com)
- Listen to Charles Bukowski Poems Being Read by Bukowski, Tom Waits and Bono (openculture.com)
love it
Thank you.
Reblogged this on Becoming is Superior to Being and commented:
“The difference between life and art is art is more bearable.”
– Charles Bukowski
Good stuff, especially the poem, Kenne. Tom
Thanks, Tom. I always appreciate your feedback.