“You get so alone at times that it just makes sense.”  Charles Bukowski

 

I used to pay a lot attention to Charles Bukowski not so many years back. I think he was a mailman by trade and a regular at the track.

He lived on the dark side of life with early assistance from his father who was a bit hard on him if I remember right. His writing was nurtured from his life that would be described on the rough side along with his humor.

I remember sitting across the street from the Rochester bookstore drinking coffee, perhaps reading one of his books. They might have made a movie of him along the way but I doubt it. He also spent time at the “track” betting and that was his entertainment. I’m trying to track down some of his work again. I had to call the library to get the correct spelling of Bukowski. My spelling path is a little wiggly.

There was an exhibition of art at the Community College Tuesday that was worth the time and the room was almost full. It’s nice to spend time in an artistic environment. It inspired me to purchase a sketchbook later at Hy-Vee.

The Native American information was something that occurred frequently in the room connected to the back of the college library. One of the first was held in the theater on a Saturday night that and that too was informative.

Years ago I was teaching elementary school in Riverside with sixth-graders, and I was talking about Columbus discovering America when a Native American student raised his hand and said, “Columbus didn’t discover America, we did.”

We have much to learn from their ways.

Mello and Fred have both kept a steady flow of barking while I attempted to write the column. The dog trainer has returned and is taking them outside.

I’m giving some thought to writing poetry. Betty Benner keeps pounding out new thoughts that she shares at open mike in Plainview and writer’s group.

I drag my old stuff to read at open mike.