In a belated celebration of Father's Day, I decided to share some poetry by one of my favorite feel-good poets, Charles Bukowski. Clearly, he had a complicated relationship with his father, but I think deep down he loved his old man, which is why I included the poem "one for the old boy".

My Father

was a truly amazing man

he pretended to be

rich

even though we lived on beans and mush and weenies

when we sat down to eat, he said,

"not everybody can eat like this."

and because he wanted to be rich or because he actually

thought he was rich

he always voted Republican

and he voted for Hoover against Roosevelt

and he lost

and then he voted for Alf Landon against Roosevelt

and he lost again

saying, "I don't know what this world is coming to,

now we've got that god damned Red in there again

and the Russians will be in our backyard next!"

I think it was my father who made me decide to

become a bum.

I decided that if a man like that wants to be rich

then I want to be poor.