It was Friday morning and I gazed out of the kitchen window
at the dreary scene. It was overcast, windy and raining. “I won’t be going far today”,
I thought to myself. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. I was greeted by the cheery smile of the post lady. She handed me my post which included a small
package.
It contained a cd called Charles Bukowski Reads His
Poetry. I made myself a cup of tea and put the cd in the machine. It is a
recording made in 1972 at the Telegraph Hill Neighbourhood Centre in San
Francisco. This is the first recording I have ever owned of Buk reading
his poems. I enjoyed hearing it. Many people might be offended by it. He is
obviously drunk, and insults and picks fights with the audience at various
stages and keeps belching into the microphone. Some of the subject matter of
the poems would outrage a lot of people but not me. As I have said before I
like his honesty and his humour. After one listen, a poem called The
Shoelace I enjoyed the most. They are all good, Bukowski was never boring. I
like his style of writing prose as well. The sentences are short, get straight
to the point and no words are wasted. I think Hemingway was an influence on him
in his early days which might account for his sparse style. I would like to
write like Bukowski.
It cheered me up on this Friday morning. I felt motivated
to achieve something today after listening to Buk and hopefully learned something
from him as well. I must stop writing anyway, though, really and I
think all the time. I have cut some of them out of this piece today. I hope my writing improves soon.
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