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Old 10-12-2015, 09:23 AM
  # 134 (permalink)  
helpimalive
Professional zombie fighter
 
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Texas
Posts: 341
Originally Posted by Jsbodhi View Post
Charles Bukowski is and has always been one of my favourite writers, not for the alcoholism, but for the rawness and the glimpses into human nature and society.
I like this one too:

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going
to let anybody see
you.
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he's
in there.

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
I say, I know that you're there,
so don't be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you?

- Charles bukowski
Yes, I like that one too!

And of course, his observations, his ideas about what makes a person authentic, and yes, his rawness, are what attract me to his work, and not the alcoholism. The alcoholism that runs through his work and his life is what makes me feel ambivalent about him.
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