a leaf drops on your white belly
and that’s all there
is.
quit before the sun
turn left at Moscow or
meet me at the Enchilada House.
the dogs have dragged me this
far.
I am numbed by Fate
but game as a linebacker in the
4th quarter.
drink?
or think?
better drink.
we have become the philosopher
of stone
for want of better things.
we used to destroy, now we note
what remains:
us, them, we and the
machinery.
neatly bound like the snail and
the leaf.
what god awful gaff these rules
are!
who set this up?
get the bastard, roast him with the
lamb!
fun to say, what?
like Mary had a little lamb and left
town on the
9:15.
stone stuff.
stern stuff, with a downward
smile.
drink?
doesn’t matter,
and it does.
what matters most is what happens to
somebody else, not
yourself.
how odd it would come down to
this.
alpine spring water couldn’t say it
better.
or the ten count.
the unexpected magic of a point
well made
can get you from fire to fire,
from hell to hell.
that’s what it’s all about, there on
the side of the
stone.
turn left at Moscow, come down
from Denver.
drink.
#1
oh, forgive me For Whom the Bell Tolls,
oh, forgive me Man who walked on water,
oh, forgive me little old woman who lived in a shoe,
oh, forgive me the mountain that roared at midnight,
oh, forgive me the dumb sounds of night and day and death,
oh, forgive me the death of the last beautiful panther,
oh, forgive me all the sunken ships and defeated armies,
this is my first FAX POEM.
it’s too late:
I have been
smitten.
song for this softly-sweeping sorrow . . .
above all this shit,
keep growing . . .
destiny is only a whore if we make her
so.
let’s light lights
let’s suffer in the grand style—
toothpick in mouth, grinning.
we can do it.
we were born strong and we will die
strong.
the manner of our living
like ocean liners in the fog . . .
thorns on roses . . .
blasé boys trotting the parks in swim suits . . .
it has been very
good.
our bones
like stems into the sky
will forever cry
victory.
sources
“caught again at some impossible pass.” c. 1959 manuscript; previously unpublished.
“in this—” c. 1960 manuscript; previously unpublished.
“prayer for broken-handed lovers.” Quicksilver 13.3, Autumn 1960; previously uncollected.
“why are all your poems personal?” Wanderlust 10, April 1961; previously uncollected.
“fast pace.” Brand “X” 1, January 1962; previously uncollected.
“I think of Hemingway.” (April 1962); El Corno Emplumado 7, July 1963; previously uncollected.
“I was shit.” c. late 1962 manuscript; previously unpublished.
“corrections of self, mostly after Whitman:” Signet 5.1, January 1963; previously uncollected.
“the bumblebee.” Early 1963 manuscript; previously unpublished.
“warble in.” Coastlines 20, 1963; previously uncollected.
“a trainride in hell.” (May 1963); Evidence 9, late 1965; previously uncollected.
“same old thing, Shakespeare through Mailer—” Wormwood Review 11, November 1963; previously uncollected.
“the rope of glass.” August 1964 manuscript; previously unpublished.
“tough luck.” c. late 1966 manuscript; previously unpublished.
“sometimes when I feel blue I listen to Mahler.” Kauri 18, January-February 1967; previously uncollected.
“men’s crapper.” Intrepid 7, March 1967; based on an earlier, unpublished draft titled “the human inhuman”; previously uncollected.
“like a flyswatter.” Early 1968 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“take me out to the ball game.” August 20, 1968 manuscript; based on an earlier, unpublished draft titled “song of the vanquished”; previously uncollected.
“I thought I was going to get some.” Laugh Literary and Man the Humping Guns 1, May 1969; previously uncollected.
“charity ward.” Planet 1.5, July 1969; based on an earlier, unpublished draft titled “good service, at last”; previously uncollected.
“like that.” (Late 1969); Lemming 1, Winter 1971; previously uncollected.
“phone call from my 5-year-old daughter in Garden Grove.” c. early 1970 manuscript; previously unpublished.
“the solar mass: soul: genesis and geotropism:” c. 1970 manuscript; previously unpublished.
“hooked on horse.” Heads Up 5, 1970; previously uncollected.
“fuck.” c. 1970 manuscript; previously unpublished.
“2 immortal poems.” c. 1970 manuscript; previously unpublished.
“T.H.I.A.L.H.” c. 1970 manuscript (second draft); previously unpublished.
“the lesbian.” Statement 27, May 1970; previously uncollected.
“a poem to myself.” (c. 1970); Something Else Yearbook, 1973; previously uncollected.
“fact.” (October 1970); Buffalo Stamps 1.2, 1971; previously uncollected.
“blues song.” Epos 22.2; Winter 1970–71; previously uncollected.
“fat upon the land.” Vagabond 10, early 1971; previously uncollected.
“love song.” March 1971 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“poem for Dante.” Second Aeon 13, 1971; previously uncollected.
“the conditions.” c. 1971 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“29 chilled grapes.” July 17, 1971 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“burning in water, drowning in flame.” November 19, 1971 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“a cop-out to a possible immortality:” October 8, 1972 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“well, now that Ezra has died . . .” (November 1972); Choice 9, 1974; previously uncollected.
“warts.” October 7, 1973 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“my new parents.” December 4, 1973 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“something about the action:” c. 1973 manuscript; previously unpublished.
“55 beds in the same direction.” Wormwood Review 53, early 1974; previously uncollected.
“b.” January 20, 1975 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“finger.” January 20, 1975 manuscript; previously unpublished.
“the thing.” April 15, 1975 manuscript; previously unpublished.
“Bob Dylan.” December 3, 1975 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“warm water bubbles.” c. 1975 manuscript; previously unpublished.
“a corny poem.” January 23, 1976 manuscript; previously unpublished.
“the ladies of the afternoon.” Black Moss 2.2, Fall 1976; previously uncollected.
“tong
ue-cut.” November 13, 1977 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“Venice, Calif., nov. 1977:” November 29, 1977 manuscript; previously unpublished.
“mirror.” February 4, 1978 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“head jobs.” The Apalachee Quarterly 11, Summer 1978; based on an earlier draft written on June 17, 1978; previously uncollected.
“chili and beans.” August 26, 1979 manuscript; based on an earlier, unpublished draft titled “to the drunks along the bar before closing time”; previously uncollected.
“go to your grave cleanly—” c. 1979 manuscript; previously unpublished.
“kuv stuff mox out.” Orpheus 1, Spring 1980; based on an earlier draft written on May 8, 1978; previously uncollected.
“a long hot day at the track.” Scree 17/18, 1981; based on an earlier draft written on July 16, 1978; previously uncollected.
“the letters of John Steinbeck.” Bachy 18, 1981; based on an earlier draft written on July 21, 1978; previously uncollected.
“and the trivial lives of royalty never excited me either . . .” November 17, 1981 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“letter to a friend with a domestic problem:” December 26, 1981 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“agnostic.” January 26, 1982 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“clones.” February 17, 1982 manuscript; previously unpublished.
“gnawed by dull crisis.” Poetry/LA 4, Spring-Summer 1982; previously uncollected.
“I been working on the railroad . . .” December 28, 1982 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“the way it goes.” May 18, 1983 manuscript; previously unpublished.
“alone in a time of armies.” July 17, 1984 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“going modern.” Oro Madre 10, 1984; based on an earlier draft written on September 12, 1984; previously uncollected.
“it doesn’t always work.” (c. Summer 1985); New York Quarterly 29, Spring 1986; previously uncollected.
“I have this room.” (June 1985); Wormwood Review 141, 1996; previously uncollected.
“a man for the centuries.” (October 1985); Second Coming 14.1, 1986; previously uncollected.
“dear old dad.” June 18, 1986 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“peace and love.” New York Quarterly 31, Fall 1986; previously uncollected.
“the world of valets.” Second Coming 16.2, late 1986; previously uncollected.
“I live to write and now I’m dying.” Scream 5, 1987; previously uncollected.
“rip it.” Once More With Feeling, 1988; previously uncollected.
“Henry Miller and Burroughs.” c. 1988 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“family tree.” Poetry/LA 17, Fall-Winter 1988–89; previously uncollected.
“being here.” Poetry/LA 18, Spring-Summer 1989; previously uncollected.
“the only life.” December 16, 1989 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“stomping at the Savoy.” March 4, 1990 manuscript; previously unpublished.
“the glory days.” June 18, 1990 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“congrats, Chinaski.” August 2, 1990 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“he went for the windmills, yes.” Big Scream 30, 1991; previously uncollected.
“all my friends.” March 15, 1991 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“a reader writes.” March 25, 1991 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“ow said the cow to the fence that linked.” March 30, 1992 manuscript; previously unpublished.
“my America, 1936.” October 1, 1992 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“[1/2/93 8:43 PM].” New York Quarterly 52, 1993; previously uncollected.
“musings.” January 20, 1993 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“storm for the living and the dead.” February 1, 1993 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“cover charge.” March 1, 1993 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“good stuff.” March 1, 1993 manuscript; previously uncollected.
“now.” August 26, 1993 manuscript; previously unpublished.
“quit before the sun.” October 14, 1993 manuscript; previously unpublished.
“#1.” February 18, 1994 manuscript; previously uncollected. In all likelihood, this is the last poem Bukowski ever wrote.
“song for this softly-sweeping sorrow . . .” November 2, 1971 manuscript; previously unpublished.
acknowledgments
The editor and publisher would like to thank the owners of the poems here printed, which include the following institutions:
University of Arizona, Special Collections
The University of California, Los Angeles, Special Collections
The University of California, Santa Barbara, Special Collections
The Huntington Library, San Marino, California
The University of Southern California, Rare Books Collection
Thanks also to the following magazines, where some of the poems
were first printed: The Apalachee Quarterly, Bachy, Big Scream,
Black Moss, Brand “X,” Buffalo Stamps, Choice, Coastlines, El
Corno Emplumado, Epos, Evidence, Heads Up, Intrepid, Kauri,
Lemming, Laugh Literary and Man the Humping Guns, New York
Quarterly, Once More With Feeling, Oro Madre, Orpheus, Planet,
Poetry/LA, Quicksilver, Second Aeon, Second Coming, Scream,
Scree, Signet, Something Else Yearbook, Statement, Vagabond,
Wanderlust, Wormwood Review, and X-Ray.
Nora, for keeping that dazzling chaos alive.
Ona and Gara, for those blasts of light and laughter.
Linda Bukowski, for those blueberries in the sun—there’s more to
the picture than meets the eye.
about the authors
CHARLES BUKOWSKI is one of America’s best-known contemporary writers of poetry and prose and, many would claim, its most influential and imitated poet. He was born in 1920 in Andernach, Germany, to an American soldier father and a German mother, and brought to the United States at the age of two. He was raised in Los Angeles and lived there for more than fifty years. He died in San Pedro, California, on March 9, 1994, at the age of seventy-three, shortly after completing his last novel, Pulp.
ABEL DEBRITTO, a former Fulbright scholar and current Marie Curie scholar, works in the digital humanities. He is the author of Charles Bukowski, King of the Underground and the editor of the Bukowski collections On Writing, On Cats, and On Love, as well as the poetry anthology Essential Bukowski.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
also by charles bukowski
The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills (1969)
Post Office (1971)
Mockingbird Wish Me Luck (1972)
South of No North (1973)
Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame: Selected Poems 1955–1973 (1974)
Factotum (1975)
Love Is a Dog from Hell (1977)
Women (1978)
You Kissed Lilly (1978)
Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit (1979)
Shakespeare Never Did This (1979)
Dangling in the Tournefortia (1981)
Ham on Rye (1982)
Bring Me Your Love (1983)
Hot Water Music (1983)
There’s No Business (1984)
War All the Time: Poems 1981–1984 (1984)
You Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense (1986)
The Movie: “Barfly” (1987)
The Roominghouse Madrigals: Early Selected Poems 1946–1966 (1988)
Hollywood (1989)
Septuagenarian Stew: Stories & Poems (1990)
The Last Night of the Earth Poems (1992)
Screams from the Balcony: Selected Letters 1960–1970 (1993)
Pulp (1994)
Living on Luck: Selected Letters 1960s–1970s (Volume 2) (1995)
Betting on the Muse: Poems & Stories (1996)
Bone Palace Ballet: New Poems (1997)
The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship (1998)
Reach for the Sun: Selected Letters 1978–1994 (Volume 3) (1999)
What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk Through the Fire: New Poems (1999)
Open All Night: New Poems (2000)
The Night Torn Mad with Footsteps: New Poems (2001)
Beerspit Night and Cursing: The Correspondence of Charles Bukowski & Sheri Martinelli 1960–1967 (2001)
Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way: New Poems (2003)
The Flash of Lightning Behind the Mountain: New Poems (2004)
Slouching Toward Nirvana (2005)
Come On In! (2006)
The People Look Like Flowers at Last (2007)
The Pleasures of the Damned (2007)
The Continual Condition (2009)
On Writing (2015)
On Cats (2015)
On Love (2016)
Essential Bukowski (2016)
credits
COVER DESIGN BY SARA WOOD
COVER PHOTOGRAPH © ULF ANDERSEN / GETTY IMAGES
copyright
Art created by Charles Bukowski and is courtesy of Linda Lee Bukowski.
STORM FOR THE LIVING AND THE DEAD. Copyright © 2017 by Linda Lee Bukowski. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-265651-3
EPub Edition November 2017 ISBN: 978-0-06-265653-7
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