Recent content by UrbanDKaye

Buk liked poking fun at Olson, Creeley, and the l-a-n-g-u-a-g-e school poets. Gotta agree with him there. Their stuff all sounds like... cornea window lettuce chicken monkey fireworks ...to me.

John Fante, Robinson Jeffers, Al Purdy, Kenneth Patchen, Harold Norse...

Ah, right. Forgot to put him on my list. Yes.

First my top 3...and I'm not sure if any of this has to do with liking Bukowski...let alone with his tastes... The Lost Weekend (a good drinking movie, but read the book, there's alot they changed, like the ending). Raging Bull (I know Buk was a fight fan, and as portraits go, this one of...

There are the guys that Buk gave some praise... Jeffers, Purdy, etc. And he was right about them. I especially like the Jeffers stuff when he's completely given up on humanity. What's that poem where he says Churchill was as bad as Hitler. That must've given his publisher a coronary. I...

"Overrated" is a funny word. Depends on who's doing the rating, and if you value their opinions. Personally, I'd rather be reading Buk than talking about him, so I only check in here every once in awhile. No offense, just that the art is what it is, and it means something different to each...

I'm gonna agree with Dinosauriawe on this one. In the 30s, parents beating their kids was considered normal. And there wasn't anyplace to go until you were old enough to whip your old man's ass and set out on your own. I s'pose there was the possibility of lying about your age and joining...

place holder - I remember being 26 and drunk and still with a job, a wife, never been to jail... yet still thinking that the booze was getting ahead of me. There were alot of close calls, emergency rooms, blackouts, things I'd done that my friends would tell me about later. And I'd take a few...

Interesting thread... For me, I'd never really thought about being a writer at all until I was 23 years old. Yes, I'd read some Bukowski by then. But writing was more like a hawk that landed on my windowsill, and just kept tapping at the glass until I let him in. Writing soon became the way...

Bill -I have a tape of Buk reading this one...one of my faves... tho on the recording he says "walking out of the bathroom naked without seeing me." Which, naturally, I prefer. * * * Cynthia - Good luck with yr new guy. A Buk fan with a poodle. The world continues to surprise.

My list: Dostoyevski (Notes) Fante (all of it) Ray Carver (almost anything) Hamsun (Hunger) cummings (Enormous Room) Jeffers (Rock & Hawk) Al Purdy (Collected Poems if you can find it) Hemingway (your choice) Celine (Journey) and as a wildcard I'll throw in "Hell" by Henri...

About 17 years ago, in New Orleans, I picked up a hardcover Post Office (1971) marked "Discard, Jefferson Parish Library". It was at a thrift shop for $6.50. Some water damage tho, and a few typos that were cleaned up in later editions. Am not quite ready to part with it, but I'll post...

Atlen - Most of my stuff appeared in poetry mags between 1988 and 2001, about 200 poems in 100 or so mags. Not sure how much made it to the web. Here's one poem. And three more short ones.

Has your real life ever seemed to be a scene from one of Buk's poems, stories, or novels...with little help or orchestration from you? Here's mine... Shortly before my first wife and I were married, Barfly the film was released. We were drunks together, so sometimes she'd jokingly call me...

Buk developed his ear for language on the colorful slang of L.A. in the 30s, so no surprise his work is peppered with terms like "86'd" and "high yellow". Some of these have passed from fashion, others are no longer considered polite. A few years back I was given a dictionary of American...