Charles Bukowski – a smile to remember

we had goldfish and they circled around and around in the bowl on the table near the heavy drapes covering the picture window and my mother, always smiling, wanting us all to be happy, told me, "be happy Henry!" and she was right: it's better to be happy if you can but my father...

Charles Bukowski – A Following

the phone rang at 1:30 a.m. and it was a man from Denver: "Chinaski, you got a following in Denver..." "yeah?" "yeah, I got a magazine and I want some poems from you..." "FUCK YOU, CHINASKI!" I heard a voice in the background... "I see you have a friend," I said. "yeah," he...

Charles Bukowski – 40,000

at the track today, Father's Day, each paid admission was entitled to a wallet and each contained a little surprise. most of the men seemed between 30 and 55, going to fat, many of them in walking shorts, they had gone stale in life, flattened out.... in fact, damn it, they aren't...

Charles Bukowski – Young In New Orleans

starving there, sitting around the bars, and at night walking the streets for hours, the moonlight always seemed fake to me, maybe it was, and in the French Quarter I watched the horses and buggies going by, everybody sitting high in the open carriages, the black driver, and...

Charles Bukowski – This

self-congratulatory nonsense as the famous gather to applaud their seeming greatness you wonder where the real ones are what giant cave hides them as the deathly talentless bow to accolades as the fools are fooled again you wonder where the real ones are if there are real ones. this...

Charles Bukowski – As The Poems Go

as the poems go into the thousands you realize that you've created very little. it comes down to the rain, the sunlight, the traffic, the nights and the days of the years, the faces. leaving this will be easier than living it, typing one more line now as a man plays a piano...

Charles Bukowski – Trapped

don't undress my love you might find a mannequin: don't undress the mannequin you might find my love. she's long ago forgotten me. she's trying on a new hat and looks more the coquette than ever. she is a child and a mannequin and death. I can't hate that. she didn't do anything unusual. I...

Charles Bukowski – Be Kind

we are always asked to understand the other person's viewpoint no matter how outdated foolish or obnoxious. one is asked to view their total error their life-waste with kindliness, especially if they are aged. but age is the total of our doing. they have aged badly because they...

Charles Bukowski – True Story

they found him walking along the freeway all red in front he had taken a rusty tin can and cut off his sexual machinery as if to say -- see what you've done to me? you might as well have the rest. and he put part of him in one pocket and part of him in another and that's how...

Charles Bukowski – Carson McCullers

she died of alcoholism wrapped in a blanket on a deck chair on an ocean steamer. all her books of terrified loneliness all her books about the cruelty of loveless love were all that was left of her as the strolling vacationer discovered her body notified the captain and...

Charles Bukowski – What Can We Do

at their best, there is gentleness in Humanity. some understanding and, at times, acts of courage but all in all it is a mass, a glob that doesn't have too much. it is like a large animal deep in sleep and almost nothing can awaken it. when activated it's best at brutality, selfishness,...

Charles Bukowski – Confession

waiting for death like a cat that will jump on the bed I am so very sorry for my wife she will see this stiff white body shake it once, then maybe again "Hank!" Hank won't answer. it's not my death that worries me, it's my wife left with this pile of nothing. I want to let...

Charles Bukowski – Working Out

Van Gogh cut off his ear gave it to a prostitute who flung it away in extreme disgust. Van, whores don't want ears they want money. I guess that's why you were such a great painter: you didn't understand much else. ...

Charles Bukowski – The Icecream People

the lady has me temporarily off the bottle and now the pecker stands up better. however, things change overnight-- instead of listening to Shostakovich and Mozart through a smeared haze of smoke the nights change, new complexities: we drive to Baskin-Robbins, 31 flavors: Rocky...

Charles Bukowski – I Met A Genius

I met a genius on the train today about 6 years old, he sat beside me and as the train ran down along the coast we came to the ocean and then he looked at me and said, it's not pretty. it was the first time I'd realized that...

Charles Bukowski – Curtain

the final curtain on one of the longest running musicals ever, some people claim to have seen it over one hundred times. I saw it on the tv news, that final curtain: flowers, cheers, tears, a thunderous accolade. I have not seen this particular musical but I know if I had that...

Charles Bukowski – The Most

here comes the fishhead singing here comes the baked potato in drag here comes nothing to do all day long here comes another night of no sleep here comes the phone wringing the wrong tone here comes a termite with a banjo here comes a flagpole with blank eyes here comes a a...

Charles Bukowski – Decline

naked along the side of the house, 8 a.m., spreading sesame seed oil over my body, Jesus, have I come to this? I once battled in dark alleys for a laugh. now I'm not laughing. I splash myself with oil and wonder, how many years do you want? how many days? my blood is soiled...

Charles Bukowski – The Sun Wields Mercy

and the sun wields mercy but like a jet torch carried to high, and the jets whip across its sight and rockets leap like toads, and the boys get out the maps and pin-cushion the moon, old green cheese, no life there but too much on earth: our unwashed India boys crossing their...

Charles Bukowski – Let It Enfold You

either peace or happiness, let it enfold you when I was a young man I felt these things were dumb, unsophisticated. I had bad blood, a twisted mind, a precarious upbringing. I was hard as granite, I leered at the sun. I trusted no man and especially no woman. I was living...