Essential Bukowski

Poetry

Charles Bukowski

• Publisher: Ecco
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780062565327
• eBook ISBN: 9780062565303
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

Edited by Abel Debritto, the definitive collection of poems from an influential writer whose transgressive legacy and raw, funny, and acutely observant writing has left an enduring mark on modern culture.

Few writers have so brilliantly and poignantly conjured the desperation and absurdity of ordinary life as Charles Bukowski. Resonant with his powerful, perceptive voice, his visceral, hilarious, and transcendent poetry speaks to us as forcefully today as when it was written. Encompassing a wide range of subjects—from love to death and sex to writing—Bukowski’s unvarnished and self-deprecating verse illuminates the deepest and most enduring concerns of the human condition while remaining sharply aware of the day to day.

With his acute eye for the ridiculous and the troubled, Bukowski speaks to the deepest longings and strangest predilections of the human experience. Gloomy yet hopeful, this is tough, unrelenting poetry touched by grace.

This is Essential Bukowski.

CONTENTS

2. Introduction
3. Friendly Advice to a Lot of Young Men, and a Lot of Old Men, too
4. As the Sparrow
5. Layover
6. The Life of Borodin
7. When Hugo Wolf Went Mad
8. Destroying Beauty
9. The Day I Kicked a Bankroll Out the Window
10. The Twins
11. To the Whore Who Took My Poems
12. The Loser
13. The Best Way to Get Famous is to Run Away
14. The Tragedy of the Leaves
15. Old Man, Dead in a Room
16. The Priest and the Matador
17. The State of World Affairs from a 3rd Floor Window
18. The Swan
19. Beans with Garlic
20. A Poem is a City
21. Consummation of Grief
22. For Jane: With all the Love I had, Which was not Enough
23. For Jane
24. John Dillinger and Le Chasseur Maudit
25. Crucifix in a Deathhand
26. Something for the Touts, the Nuns, the Grocery Clerks and you . . .
27. No. 6
28. And the Moon and the Stars and the World:
29. True Story
30. The Genius of the Crowd
31. I Met a Genius
32. Swastika Star Buttoned to My Ass
33. The Blackbirds are ...

Table of contents

• Contents
• Introduction
• Friendly Advice to a Lot of Young Men, and a Lot of Old Men, too
• As the Sparrow
• Layover
• The Life of Borodin
• When Hugo Wolf Went Mad
• Destroying Beauty
• The Day I Kicked a Bankroll Out the Window
• The Twins
• To the Whore Who Took My Poems
• The Loser
• The Best Way to Get Famous is to Run Away
• The Tragedy of the Leaves
• Old Man, Dead in a Room
• The Priest and the Matador
• The State of World Affairs from a 3rd Floor Window
• The Swan
• Beans with Garlic
• A Poem is a City
• Consummation of Grief
• For Jane: With all the Love I had, Which was not Enough
• For Jane
• John Dillinger and Le Chasseur Maudit
• Crucifix in a Deathhand
• Something for the Touts, the Nuns, the Grocery Clerks and you . . .
• No. 6
• And the Moon and the Stars and the World:
• True Story
• The Genius of the Crowd
• I Met a Genius
• Swastika Star Buttoned to My Ass
• The Blackbirds are Rough Today
• If we Take—
• Another Academy
• The Poetry Reading
• The Last Days of the Suicide Kid
• The Shower
• The Mockingbird
• Style
• Girl in a Miniskirt Reading the Bible Outside My Window
• The Shoelace
• Those Sons of Bitches
• Hot
• Trouble with Spain
• A Radio with Guts
• Love Poem to Marina
• Some People Never Go Crazy
• The Fisherman
• The Trash Men
• Face of a Political Candidate on a Street Billboard
• The Proud Thin Dying
• An Almost Made Up Poem
• A Love Poem for all the Women I have Known
• Art
• What they Want
• One for the Shoeshine Man
• The Meek have Inherited
• Who in the Hell is Tom Jones?
• And a Horse with Greenblue Eyes Walks on the Sun
• An Acceptance Slip
• The End of a Short Affair
• I Made a Mistake
• $$$$$$
• Metamorphosis
• We’ve Got to Communicate
• The Secret of My Endurance
• Carson McCullers
• Sparks
• The History of a Tough Motherfucker
• Oh, Yes
• Retirement
• Luck
• If you Want Justice, Take the Knife
• Cornered
• How is your Heart?
• The Burning of the Dream
• Hell is a Lonely Place
• The Strongest of the Strange
• 8 Count
• We Ain’t Got No Money, Honey, But we Got Rain
• Flophouse
• The Soldier, His Wife and the Bum
• No Leaders
• Dinosauria, We
• Nirvana
• The Bluebird
• The Secret
• Fan Letter
• To Lean Back into it
• Do you Want to Enter the Arena?
• The Condition Book
• A New War
• The Laughing Heart
• Roll the Dice
• So Now?
• The Crunch
• Sources
• Acknowledgments
• About the Authors
• Also by Charles Bukowski
• Credits
• Copyright
• About the Publisher