A DIG THIS SPECIAL PRESENTATION- CHARLES BUKOWSKI- THE HOME CASSETTE RECORDINGS- LOUISIANA, 1970- HIS PROLIFIC WORK REFLECTED AN UNDERGROUND DRAPED IN A VELVET CLOTH SIMILAR TO THAT OF LOU REED & KURT COBAIN - BUKOWSKI SPOKE TO THE DOWNTRODDEN OF AMERICA

BUKOWSKI SPEAKS!!!!! Cause and Effect -For Kurt Cobain "the best often die by their own hand just to get away, and those left behind can never quite understand why anybody would ever want to get away from them" Bukowski writes with no apologies from the frayed edge of society. “Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.” “For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can't readily accept the God formula, the big answers don't remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.” Bukowski's response to: “Do you hate people?” “I don't hate them...I just feel better when they're not around.” “Find what you love and let it kill you.” “If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery--isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is.” “We're all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn't. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing.” Bluebird “Bluebird” is one of Bukowski’s best-known poems and came late in his life during a time of great reflection. It deals with one of deepest-rooted human emotions: vulnerability. Bukowski typically dealt with “hyper-masculine” subject matter, but this poem suggests that, like most men, Bukowski also struggled to live up to traditional notions of masculinity. 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? This was published in Bukowski's book "The Last Night of the Earth Poems" circa 1992