Another dose of melancholia from Charles Bukowski ..........but I like it.

Another poignant poem from Charles Bukowski - Hell is a Lonely Place. Sadly the scenario described is not uncommon and, when you think about it, not an illogical conclusion to a lifetime relationship. What would you do in similar circumstances?

"Who in the hell is Tom Jones" by Charles Bukowski

I subscribe to a few 'poem a day' services that drop a wide spectrum of verse into my inbox each day. Some good, same awful, some incomprehensible, some wonderful.  A quick scan usually lets me know what to do: ignore or read.  Today a poem by Charles Bukowski came in: 'Who the hell is Tom Jones'. This is one to listen to rather than read (Try the Youtube Spoken Verse channel). It came with a note purporting to be written by one of the protagonists in the drama.  I accept it is. It adds to the story and fills out my perception of the poet: someone who tended to write his words to suit the persona he created.  A persona that wasn't real but he had, nonetheless, a great talent.
 

I was the naive girl from NYC. Bukowski wrote this poem to promote the image of this hard-drinking, womaniser that he so fiercely wanted the public to believe was true. Yes he drank heavily, and at 55 he was not able to fulfil all that "shacking up" implies, not with me at least. The drawing is not representative of me or his drunk girlfriend. He wrote other versions of this incident, all to make himself look like the sought-after Casanova. He wrote marvellous, inaccurate drama.
 

Bluebird: a poem by Charles Bukowski

I'm a fairly regular listener of the Radio 4 programme, Poetry Please and, every now and again, a little gem hits me. Last week, it was a reading of one entitled 'Bluebird' by an American poet, Charles Bukowski. You can listen to the reading by the poet himself on this short YouTube clip I think his voice is wonderfully expressive. Whilst looking for the clip, I came across an animation based on the poem and you can find that here
They are both well worth a couple of minutes of time viewing. OK, I admit that the theme is not particularly cheerful and I'm sure that the fact that the poem resonates with me is open to all sorts of interpretations. I won't indulge in any self analysis but I will say: let's all let our inner bluebirds free.
Here are the words but you really ought to hear the poet read them before forming an opinion on the poem.
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?