I just received a comment from Angelina. She said that she was glad to have stumbled on my blog and to have had the chance to read something of Bukowski which she could actually enjoy and which wasn´t too depressing. So this poem is specially for her.
I don´t find his work depressing at all. Actually I tend to laugh a lot while reading his books. That may sound strange, but I guess it is the way he describes everything. Often while reading his work, I nod to myself and think he just knows how crazy this world is. Another thing I really like about him is that he doesn´t judge his characters and you can feel his sympathy for them (even if his language may not be very sensitive ;) ).
Rain
Charles Bukowski
a symphony orchestra.
there is a thunderstorm,
they are playing a Wagner overture
and the people leave their seats under the trees
and run inside to the pavilion
the women giggling, the men pretending calm,
wet cigarettes being thrown away,
Wagner plays on, and then they are all under the
pavilion. the birds even come in from the trees
and enter the pavilion and then it is the Hungarian
Rhapsody #2 by Lizst, and it still rains, but look,
one man sits alone in the rain
listening. the audience notices him. they turn
and look. the orchestra goes about its
business. the man sits in the night in the rain,
listening. there is something wrong with him,
isn't there?
he came to hear the music.
If I would have been there, I would have joined the man and would haven enjoyed the rain/music.
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2 comments:
Thank you for putting up this poem especially for me! I would be out there with the man listening too.
I think I like ice cream people better, but I like this one as well.
I suppose I'm going to have to reform my feelings about Bukowski. I never saw this coming. Maybe I should just read some of his poems first. Have you got a favorite book of poems he's done that you could recommend?
What I like about his poems (so far) is that in his own inimitable way he has said something rather beautiful with ordinary words. I dislike poetry that tries to hard to get at the profound with lofty words. His language is simple and even hard, and through it I can see something extraordinary.
I wonder if my ability to appreciate the poems of his that you've put on your blog has something to do with being much older than I was when I first read his work, it's not the age that I suspect may have gotten in the way, but the things in my life that have changed.
Actually I have a lot of his books, but most of them are in German and most of them are still in boxes as we just moved into a new apartment. I prefer reading his stuff in English - most of his translated books are not very good.
It´s funny... I´m not very much into poetry. So I read my first poems by Bukowski just a few weeks ago and have found out that I do enjoy reading them. I need to get more. I´ll let you know which ones I really like.
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