Blogger Declares August as Charles Bukowski Month!

It’s unofficially Charles Bukowski month because this blogger has declared it so!   Who the heck is Bukowski you might be asking. In my opinion he is one of the great writers of our time.  Known for his cutting, take no prisoners, urban poetry and musings.
It’s no secret.  I am in love with the man’s poetry.  If you love ‘bad boys’ who are shot with talent, he’s the guy for you.  I read his work every day that I write….whatever his commentary is about I am inspired to be a better writer.

Bukowski’s life was horrific by most people’s standards.  He was a raging alcoholic, womanizer, gambler and bum.  He worked regular jobs only enough to keep himself in cigarettes, booze, rent (occasionally) stamps, typewriter paper and money for the race track .  My fantasy is;  oh yes I have fantasized about him….to spend a weekend with him at my cabin, deep in the forests of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  In the evenings, before a fire, we would drink whiskey neat, talk of people, past and present, swear at each other and tell stories.  We would end the nights out on the porch singing bawdy songs.  During the day there would be a rule of silence (easy for writers).  Charles would sit at his manual typewriter and I at my computer.

Of course, Fiona (aka Frankie) would abandoned me for Charles knowing full well that he loves cats, maybe more than I do.  When she knows she has a sympathetic and new audience she will leave me in the dust.  Fickle, fickle cat.

For the entire month I will share with you Charles Bukowski, the man and his writing.  Much of the time what he writes will sound more like an autobiography,  because it is.

I first met Charles within the pages of “Pleasures of the Damned“.  The first thing I ever read of his was this poem and I was hooked forever.

the mocking bird  ©

the mockingbird had been following the cat
all summer
mocking, mocking, mocking
teasing and cocksure;
the cat crawled under rockers on porches
tail flashing
and said something angry to the mockingbird
which I didn’t understand.

yesterday the cat walked calmly up the driveway
with the mockingbird alive in its mouth.
wings fanned, beautiful wings fanned and flopping,
feathers parted like a woman’s legs,
and the bird was no longer mocking,
it was asking, it was praying
but the cat
striding down through centuries
would not listen.

I saw it crawl under a yellow car
with the bird
to bargain it to another place.

summer was over.

So, dear readers, come back often this month to celebrate this brilliant writer.
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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!

In addition to my twice weekly blog I also feature an interview with another author once a month. So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create!    September will feature an interview with author, Peter May.

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