Bukowski's last book of poems?

[bronzeage]

I used my B&N gift card to buy Slouching Toward Nirvana, which may be Bukowski's last book. Who knows. There may be another file cabinet full of unpublished poems and somebody's grandson will be making a good living from them 60 years in the future.

All the standard critiques apply. It's prose broken into lines, it's just rambling thoughts, no real effort in the imagery, and everything else ever scribbled in red ink by an English graduate assistant grading papers from a sophomore class.

The Curse

You think that fame has't eaten
people alive?
hasn't killed then long before
their time?
it made Tolstoy fearful of
his wife and God;
caused Henry Miller to stop
writing books
and turn instead to
tirelessly writing love letters
to women who only wanted
to fuck his
addled notoriety;
led poor Hemingway
down the lonely path
of electroshock treatment
and suicide;
compelled Celine, he of the
darkest laughter of our time,
to walk off into the woods
tired and broken;
hounded Ezra Pound and
Hamsum relentlessly like wild
dogs;
tricked Ambrose Bierce into
disappearing forever;
force Van Gogh to swim and drown
in a gorgeous yellow sun of his
own making;
and drove so many others to
falter and fail
all so unsuspecting
all so humanly
fragile.

we are hardly ever
as strong
as that which we
create.

 

[SamScribble]

On balance, I think I liked Bukowski. But, gosh, he was uneven.

I liked his energy on a good day. But I suspect history may eventually decide that he didn’t have as many good days as he should have had.

A few years ago, I was moving house and moving country. My wife (my lovely, sensible, practical wife) said ‘do you really want all those books?’ So I gave four or five Bukowskis to the 18-year-old son of a friend.

His mother said that her son didn’t know what he was going to do next. It wasn’t that he lacked ability. It was just that nothing, at that stage, had said to him: this is important, this is what you should put some effort into.

The young man sent me a thank you note. (No doubt his mother nsisted.) And he went on to become a useful professor of English.

I’m not saying that Charles B made it happen. Of course not. But apparently Bukowski renewed my young friend’s interest in words and in the language of the street (whatever than means).

Tonight I’ll probably re-read a few of Bukowski’s (prose) poems.

Thanks for the reminder.

 

[Epmd607]

Having read the complete bukowski, I'm of the opinion that chuck eats ass as a poet. I do like one or two of his poems, while I'm hard pressed to find any number of poets who really enjoy his poetry. However, he is wildly popular with "writers". Prose poetry isn't my cup of tea anyway

 

[twelveoone]

Having read the complete bukowski, I'm of the opinion that chuck eats ass as a poet. I do like one or two of his poems, while I'm hard pressed to find any number of poets who really enjoy his poetry. However, he is wildly popular with "writers". Prose poetry isn't my cup of tea anyway

funny, I got thrashed for a Buk emulation that called him a lazy ass son of a bitch.
Chuck was not noted for dipping into the poetic tool box, to often, come to think of it, can't remember ever using anything resembling a poetic tool, however, Chuckie was a master of "timing" he could be funny as hell. So if a qualify as a poet and I liked some of CB's poems. All depends on definition. Right now I don't care whether I or Bukowski's poems fit your definition.
BECAUSE YOU CAN GET OFF YOUR ASS AND VOTE THESE PROSE POETS DOWN,
just leave your name, so I can see you're doing your job.

BECAUSE I DIDN'T SEE YOUR NAME ON SOME RATHER WELL WRITTEN "FORMAL POETRY" Either, I'll go over and look, thank you.

'sides this is America, upgrade to coffee.

 

[bogusagain]

Buk is completely open to criticism from tradionalists but he has something and that you can't take away from him. He can be sad, cynical and funny all at the same time and that is a gift.

I remember on a seven hour train journey from Berlin to Amsterdam my better half forgot to take stuff to read so I gave her a poetry book of Buk's 'What matters most etc. etc' and his novel Factotum. She was convinced she wouldn't like it but by the time we got to Amsterdam she wet her knickers with laughter and was asking me what else I had of his to read and she is a hardcore wholemeal, literature as brain food type of person. I was surprised at her reaction but then again, she was with me so she did like to get down in the gutter from time to time.

 

[Epmd607]

funny, I got thrashed for a Buk emulation that called him a lazy ass son of a bitch.
Chuck was not noted for dipping into the poetic tool box, to often, come to think of it, can't remember ever using anything resembling a poetic tool, however, Chuckie was a master of "timing" he could be funny as hell. So if a qualify as a poet and I liked some of CB's poems. All depends on definition. Right now I don't care whether I or Bukowski's poems fit your definition.
BECAUSE YOU CAN GET OFF YOUR ASS AND VOTE THESE PROSE POETS DOWN,
just leave your name, so I can see you're doing your job.

BECAUSE I DIDN'T SEE YOUR NAME ON SOME RATHER WELL WRITTEN "FORMAL POETRY" Either, I'll go over and look, thank you.

'sides this is America, upgrade to coffee.

Literotica has little to do with contemporary trends in poetry. Formal poetry isn't a reaction to prose poetry either. Don't know what your definition of formal poetry is though. I don't vote in real life, certainly don't vote for poems on the Internet

 

[twelveoone]

Literotica has little to do with contemporary trends in poetry. Formal poetry isn't a reaction to prose poetry either. Don't know what your definition of formal poetry is though. I don't vote in real life, certainly don't vote for poems on the Internet

what in the hell are you trying to do in the other thread, if you don't vote here?