“neither Shakespeare or Mickey Spillane” 2 pp., 11/19/92; published in “Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way” – p.132 (2002) – the title of the collection comes from lines in this poem; written as it was when Bukowski was 72 as he recollects his life of drunkeness, some of his women (“she’s a subnormal from lower Dixie, a brain damage case…”), and most critically his desire to be a published writer (“son of a bitch, I ached to be a writer of any kind. didn’t they understand”), when he was 36; computer printout of a typed poem, signed and dated in ink by Bukowski. * “a reader writes” 2 pp., 3/25/91; unpublished according to bukowski.net; Buk writes an extraordinary explanation of why he writes: not for money by writing the same popular themes but to keep “my psyche’s guts from drowning in the dung- filled waters of this so- called Existence”; tells the reader he is 70 years old and: “You really can’t expect me to write about the big asses of some women”; he wrote about rooming houses only when he lived there and moving on is important; computer printout of a typed poem, signed and dated in ink by Bukowski. * “spit out and falling…” 2 pp. 12/27/92; unpublished according to bukowski.net; a brilliant poem from the aging and ill Bukowski describing the tedium of life, “there’s no hell like your own hell...you are stuck with your body and your life...”; computer printout of a typed poem, signed and dated in ink by Bukowski. * “bedtime story” 5/10/92; “World Letter” - No. 4 (1993); and as a slightly different version titled “a child’s bedtime story” in “Come On In!” – p.42 (2006); a bedtime story really told in the form of a warning of father/country telling everyone to shut up and wait for the end; computer printout of a typed poem, signed and dated in ink by Bukowski. * “the riots” 5/5/92; published in “Verdict Is In” – 1992; although Bukowski is not political, he makes a political statement concerning the aftermath of the riots in Los Angeles when the poor remain poor, the unemployed remain so, the homeless stay homeless and the politicians promise change but live well only for themselves; computer printout of a typed poem, signed and dated in ink by Bukowski. * “the bunnies” 3/1/93; unpublished according to bukowski.net; Bukowski looks at those writers who lived before Aids, the Hydrogen Bomb etc. some of whom drank themselves to near death; computer printout of a typed poem, signed and dated in ink by Bukowski. * “bs” 7/25/93; published in “Transit” - No. 5 (1994); Bukowski finds more ways to use “bullshit” than imaginable and then leaves his usual surprise ending; computer printout of a typed poem, signed and dated in ink by Bukowski. * “right rear” 2/13/93; unpublished according to bukowski.net; only Bukowski can eloquently describe random occurrences as if they mirror the triviality of life; computer printout of a typed poem, signed and dated in ink by Bukowski. * “a member of the tribe” 4 pp., 5/22/91; unpublished according to bukowski.net; a tough attack on the kind of peacock poet Bukowski always despised, who claims there is a conspiracy where Buk told John Martin at BSP never to print him, at 70 Bukowski shows a bit of braggadocio about the power of his poetry when compared to more celebrated poets like Ginsberg and Ferlinghetti; computer printout of a typed poem, signed and dated in ink by Bukowski. Together, 9 manuscripts poems by Charles Bukowski.
Giving way to technology, Bukowski now produces his poems as computer printouts, signs and dates them and sends them to his publisher. Each with letter of authenticity from Scott Harrison at Abandoned Planet Bookstore.