Charles Bukowski

Image copyright Charles Bukowski

Here at Cause and Effect, we very much value the written word as an art form. Out of all the books, stories and poems I've ever read, nothing has blew me away as much as the work of Charles Bukowski. A flawed genius. Here is one of my favourite Bukowski poems:

As the Sparrow

To give life you must take life,

and as our grief falls flat and hollow

upon the billion-blooded sea

I pass upon serious inward-breaking shoals rimmed

with white-legged, white-bellied rotting creatures

lengthily dead and rotting against surrounding scenes.

Dear child, I only did to you what the sparrow

did to you: I am old when it is fashionable to be

young; I cry when it is fashionable to laugh.

I hated you when it would have taken less courage 

to love.

Whilst Bukowski will always be remembered as a "laureate of American lowlife", his art works provide another insight into the his troubled character.

Glinka