Another Nonpopulist Hero: Bukowski

Charles Bukowski was a poet and prose writer who I have admired as long as long as I have been aware of his work. I tried unsuccessfully for a while to find the poem where something happens (I think he got fired from one of his jobs) and he says in the poem something to the effect of 'That's ok, because now I'm the bad boy of poetry again." I wish I remembered what the title was because that poem kills me every time. This man wrote volumes of poetry also. I have written a lot of poems, but no one can ever do it at the pace Bukowski did.
What spurred me to write a little about Bukowski was a page that Roger Ebert put together and linked to on his twitter page, @ebertchicago. He is definitely one of my favorite tweeters so it is nice to find out he was an appreciator of Charles Bukowski as well. Another famous writer, Jack Kerouac, graces the Nonpopulist blog and is sort of the unofficial mascot of what I try to do here. Kerouac is known as "King of the Beats," and Bukowski is often lumped in with all of the beats, but I consider him outside of that movement. His work stands alone in its wonderful deviance. Do yourself a favor. Pick up one of his books and read it cover to cover. The Wikipedia page had a great title ascribed to Charles Bukowski, "laureate of American lowlife." Embrace the dirtiness and deviance of which he writes.