Companion Poet - Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski is an American poet and novelist who lived most of his life in Los Angeles. The topics he discusses in his poetry include drinking, work, relationships with women, the process of writing, the realities of being poor in the United States, and did I also mention drinking? His gravestone reads: "Don't Try", a phrase which Bukowski uses in one of his poems, advising aspiring writers and poets about inspiration and creativity. Bukowski explained the phrase in a 1963 letter to John William Corrington: "Somebody at one of these places [...] asked me: 'What do you do? How do you write, create?' You don't, I told them. You don't try. That's very important: 'not' to try, either for Cadillacs, creation or immortality. You wait, and if nothing happens, you wait some more. It's like a bug high on the wall. You wait for it to come to you. When it gets close enough you reach out, slap out and kill it. Or if you like its looks you make a pet out of it."
Bukowski is one of the best known and most beloved poets of the 20th century. Poemhunter.com can be quoted as saying, "His work has received relatively little attention from academic critics" yet simultaneously they rank him as the 9th greatest poet of all time.
http://bukowski.net/
Bukowski is one of the best known and most beloved poets of the 20th century. Poemhunter.com can be quoted as saying, "His work has received relatively little attention from academic critics" yet simultaneously they rank him as the 9th greatest poet of all time.
http://bukowski.net/