The Pleasures of the Damned
Poems, 1951-1993
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4.3 • 15 Ratings
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
“The Walt Whitman of Los Angeles.”—Joyce Carol Oates, bestselling author
“He brought everybody down to earth, even the angels.”—Leonard Cohen, songwriter
The Pleasures of the Damned features selected later poetry of Charles Bukowski, America’s most influential poet.
To his legions of fans, Charles Bukowski was—and remains—a counterculture icon. A hard-drinking wild man of literature, a stubborn outsider to the poetry world, he struck a chord with generations of readers, writing raw, tough poetry about booze, work, and women, that spoke to his fans as “real” and, like the work of the Beats, even dangerous.
The Pleasures of the Damned is a selection of the best works of Bukowski’s later years, edited by John Martin of Black Sparrow Press, including the last of his new, never-before-published poems.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bukowski's chatty free verse (and fiction) about disappointment, drunkenness, racetracks, flophouses, lust, sexual failure, poverty and late-life success amassed an enormous following by the time of his death at age 73 in 1994. Billed as the last book with new Bukowski poems in it, this hefty collection also culls from his prior books, and it is all of a piece: the warnings about lost potency, the ironic takes on ailments of mind and body, the comradeship with everyone down at the heels, down on his luck, or down to his last shot of booze. Bukowski's best poems have an exaggerated, B-movie black-and-white aura about them. One new poem warns "that/ nothing is wasted:/ either that/ or/ it all is." In another, "hell is only what we/ create,/ smoking these cigarettes,/ waiting here,/ wondering here." Near the front of the volume comes a page-and-a-half-long verse manifesto, "a poem is a city," that might describe what Bukowski could do: "a poem is a city filled with streets and sewers," it begins, "filled with saints, heroes, beggars, madmen... banality and booze," and yet "a poem is the world."
Customer Reviews
Exceptional
This is a great collection of poems. Whether you read poetry often or are new to the subject this is an excellent work. He has a grittiness and a skill with words than anyone can appreciate. Read this book!