🚀 go-pugleaf

George J. Dance wrote:

> On 2022-07-21 7:00 p.m., NancyGene wrote:
>> On Thursday, July 21, 2022 at 10:51:22 PM UTC, blackpo...@aol.com wrote:
>
>>> https://youtu.be/lyMS4qJ8NXU
>> It's really just a paragraph or two being read.

> No, it's not 'just" a prose paragraph. Just from Bukowski's reading, you
> can tell he's reading a poem: you can hear the line breaks.

> That said, we don't like the last line ("But I don't weep, do you?").
> It reminds us of a former first lady's coat, which said "I don't really
> care, do you?" although the Bukowski quote predates that.

> I don't know, but I'd bet it was her husband who said that. That's
> always a problem in a poem (when a line or phrase unintentionally echoes
> something more familiar, resulting in a mixed image), but it's probably
> one that will go away: the Nixons have been consigned to the dustbin of
> history, where they belong.

>> Having the line end with "do you?" is a totally obvious choice and hurts the poem.

> It may detract from the poem for some; it turns it from a purely
> introspective piece into a didactic or 'message' poem. But there's
> nothing wrong with didacticism per se. And I admire Bukowski for going
> there.

> I think "Bluebird" was written as a spoken piece (from all that
> repetition); that Bukowski was considering his audience, whom he was
> writing for; and that his audience -- tough guys, hard workers and hard
> drinkers, rebels without a cause -- are the men most likely to have
> their own bluebird problem, and (for the same reason) most likely to
> suppress that knowledge. He cannot count on that sort of man (he knows,
> since he's been one himself) to just suddenly think, "Gee, he's not only
> talking about himself -- he's talking about a general truth about man,
> which might be true of me as well." Especially in a spoken reading,
> where he and his audience will have passed on to another poem a few
> moments later. For the poem to be most effective, he has to give his
> audience that thought explicitly.


Excellent Buk poem, and excellent critique as well G.D....