Ink Mathematics

Charles Bukowski in his later years, photograph by Linda Bukowski

Hello you-

Lately I have been listening to all of the Charles Bukowski discs I acquired from awhile back when I went through a massive CB faze. This faze that I speak of was back in early 2004 when I returned to Montana after doing a study abroad in The Netherlands. For all the typical reasons I returned back to the US completely disillusioned with my life and with few friends still hanging around. It was during this time, and now I look back fondly, that Charles Bukowski found his way onto my bookshelf, and I began to read volume after volume of his work until I had most of it under my belt. It was always little food, lots of coffee, and down in the quiet library between classes reading Bukowski. It’s funny how during hard times you always seem to find some sort of crutch to help you through; CB was mine, and maybe still is one of them, along with this currently never-ending Buddy Holly fixation.

Charles Bukowski + Buddy Holly = Peas in a pod

I often think, and I’m not sure why, of the first time I ever came across CB. I had a professor at Chico State in California that was particularly captivating in class and seemed to radiate some sort of unique wisdom and respectability that was uncommon among the profs I’d had. He was older, tattooed, spoke to the class slowly and eloquently, and taught sitting down behind a large desk. I dreamt of one day possessing his old man attributes for myself, perhaps even before I was an old man. Oh, to be an old man and have respect…sigh. After one class period, during which he showed an optional Holocaust documentary which compelled most of the class to clear out, I approached him and asked him for a few book recommendations. He recommended the Autobiography of Malcolm X As Told to: Alex Haley, which affected me deeply, and Notes of a Dirty Old Man by CB.

Along with Notes from a Dirty Old Man, my two other favorite Bukowski books are Ham on Rye and Pulp. Of his books of poetry, which run together in my head, What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire stands out as a great anthology with a lot of his best work represented.

I am currently reading Love is a Dog from Hell.

I’ve met a few people poetry majors that bad-mouthed Bukowski and looked down upon his writing style, but for me, just a regular guy with normal thoughts and a limited vocabulary, nothing hits harder and closer, and that is pretty much everything.

Take care of yourself, you hear?

Still a Rabble Rouser from Montana,

Collin

Oh, and it’s nice to have a bunch of different Bukowski recordings, but the only one I need is the incredible double disc Charles Bukowski Uncensored : From the Run With The Hunted Session….Everything here is from that, except for Firestation and They, all of them, know…which came from Charles Bukowski Reads his Poetry

At the very least, listen to Dinosauria, We, and We ain’t got no money, honey, but we got rain.

Genius of the crowd