He accompanied himself on guitar, harmonica, and drums in songs such as "Going Back to the Country", "Life Is a Nightmare", and "Struggle Here in Houston".

[3]: 47  Starting a musical career as a teenager, he won the first prize at local disc jockey Trummie Cain's weekly talent show at the Lincoln Theater in Houston, Texas in 1948.

Through this he secured a 15-minute radio slot on a show operated by the record retailer Henry Atlas.

The shock of the operation, plus the social climate of the times (which included civil rights riots and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy), led Bonner to begin writing poetry, some of which was published in the Houston Forward Times, a weekly newspaper.

He continued to perform and record sporadically, but he had no choice but to take a minimum wage job at a chicken-processing plant in Houston.