It is hard not to feel fatigued by how shallow Bukowski’s vision is. Successful metaphor is scant in his work, as is enriching irony. What you see is what you get, and what is seen is Bukowski is rarely impressive.

Matt Reiman: Why We Can Stop Reading Charles Bukowski

Here’s to one of America’s most overrated scrawlers of the vulgar and vile, and a perfect example of broken prose passing for poetry. He paved the way for Rupi Kaur. I had Chas B. in mind in this stanza:

Like the scribblers of Suicide, brimming with bile—
Or the autodestructive self-pitying boozer,
Whose quaint observations enshrining the vile
Are a crime against life and an art for the loser.