“‘Post Office’ is the first one I read and I loved that one. ‘Women’ I think is good also. Much of his poems have an autobiographical element. He was a notorious alcoholic living on the fringes of society for the bulk of his life pretty much till he died. There’s a poem I just read about him drinking a bottle of wine and listening to Bach. And ‘Post Office’ was written because he worked at one for a number of years.
When I write poetry, it has to be based in some sort of reality. A lot of it has to do with me or people I know. I’m not the best at inventing characters. I have to have a reality basis for whatever comes out that day. Buying these books help.” — Storm for the Living and the Dead by Charles Bukowski
