Charles Bukowski on Vicious Poetry Critics

When I was a very young man, I enjoyed reading the critical articles in the Swanee and Kenyon Reviews, in regard to poetics. Those critics were such darlings, such snobs, so protected, so inbred, and they were amusingly vicious--at times--toward each other. They nearly sliced each other to pieces in the finest of language, and I admired that, for my own language was rather coarse and direct, which I preferred, yet their way held much wonderment for me. Ah, such a gentlemanly way of calling each other assholes and idiots. Yet, beyond this, they had some insights on what was wrong with poetry and what could possibly be done about that.

Charles Bukowski, "Playing and Being the Poet," April 12, 1992, in Charles Bukowski: Absence of the Hero, 2010