Working Class Roots
Bukowski explores his working class roots in many of these poems
including, ‘the souls of dead animals’. The poem is about how after working in
the slaughterhouse all day he never showered with the boys. Instead he would
sit in a bar and savor how the ‘blood-smell begins to fulminate/ and gain
power.’ In ‘Yankee Doodle’ he reflects on a fellow factory worker Sully who
retires after 40 years on the job. In contrast to him, the speaker, presumably
Bukowski, continues to arrive drunk at work and is soon shown the door. In the more
complex poem ‘claws of paradise’ he sums up how he was mastered ‘the hangover/
the tears’ and now ‘there is nothing to do/ but drink/ play the horse/ bet on
the poem’.
Everyday Events
Some of the better poems are centered around simple every
day events like observing the circular flight of pesky insects in ‘2 flies’, eating
a piece of fruit in ‘apple’, going for a walk for lunch in ‘the sandwich’,
getting his teeth cleaned at the dentist in ‘8 rooms’ or observing people
shopping in ’59 cents a pound.’ What’s interesting about these narrative poems
is you are unable to predict what is going to happen. The poems start with a
basic premise but with Bukowski’s incredible imagination at work and drawing
from his huge repertoire of experience you never know where you will end up.
Political Poems
Apart from the usual material describing his relationships
with unusual women and men, his love/ hate of the race track and his occasional
serious sicknesses, he also includes some rare political poems. In the poems
‘face of a political candidate on a street billboard’ and ‘the drunk tank
judge’ Bukowski questions the ability of elitist politicians and judges to
understand the plight of common people when they need to pass judgment on them. In the
powerful poem ‘the proud thin dying’ he sympathises with pensioners who are
trapped by inflation and starving, clutching onto outdated stoical notions ‘that silence was bravery,’ who have
to steal grapes in order to survive. In one of the best poems in the collection
‘dow average down’ he is more scathing of the system and its promises and lies
and shonky practices to suck you in to make you ‘like everybody else.’
On Writing
Few writers wrote more explicitly about writing than
Bukowski, and inevitably, you will find some in this collection. Notable is the
clever meta-fictional poem ‘through the streets of anywhere’ which morphs on a
variety of levels and makes the aching observation about humankind: ‘but we are
all finally tricked and/ slapped to death/ like lovers vows, bargained/ out of
any gain.’ In ‘interviews’ he complains that people often approach him to
conduct interviews about his work yet he rarely sees the final product. Aptly, asked whether
he has ‘any advice about writing/ poetry, it’s—don’t.’ In ‘nothing is as
effective as defeat’ Bukowski satirises the typical advice given to young
writers- ‘always carry a notebook with you’, ‘don’t drink too much’, ‘attend
readings’. He concludes dismissively:
for a guy who couldn’t write at all
he was about like the rest
of them: he could sure
talk about
it.
After reading many huge, sprawling post-death Bukowski
poetry collections it is comforting to read his work from the 1970s when he was
more vigorously alive, inventive, and still willing to take great risks and not
truly giving a shit what the general community and publishers thought about his ground-breaking work. You will also find refreshing other early and now largely
ignored publications such as Mockingbird
Wish Me Luck (1972), and The Days Run
Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills (1969).
