A bit of an unusual one here, I’m going to recomment you follow a link and listen and watch a reading of Bluebird, as this is a work best enjoyed performed I think, like much of Bukowski’s. You can get a huge amount from it personally reading, but its a great example of where the sensation of hearing a poem delivers, to me, such a different experience and level of meaning.
Quite recently someone asked the question ‘How come so many boys like Bukowski?’. I’ve been pondering and I think one of the reasons is that he’s so unapologetic for being a man, which seems so rare these days. He’s flawed, inelegant at times, biased, scarred and scared but brutally honest and that’s so raw and powerful, along with his quite refreshing anti-establishment approach of not giving a toss about anyone else.
This particular poem is so simple in showing a vulnerability, and the sometimes almost totally opposite image which some people portray compared to the soul within them, and it has a special place in my heart relating to a friend I lost.
When I was starting to perform in the early nineties Bukowski was very much the ‘name’ it was fashionable to follow, and I think some of the poems at the time were hugely influenced (I wasn’t alone there), but if anything, the biggest influence is that my later poetry rebelled against the bombast and external confidence, and I think, without realising, started writing the opposite.
Just a note on the link I include here, if you know anyone reluctant to read poetry but interested in trying, any of the tom o’bedlam readings available on youtube area a great start.