12,000 Dollars In 3 Months

[mjp]

From Midwest - No. 4 - 1962, courtesy of nymark:

 

[number6horse]

Neither one of those reads like Bukowski to me. But it's cool to read earlier work and see him experiment a little and stretch out with his technique. (Or maybe I'm just more in tune with post-1965/66 material.) I like the second one a little better than the first, fwiw.

Apropos of nothing, why does the word "Bukowski" get the red squiggly spelling error treatment ON A WEBSITE DEVOTED TO BUKOWSKI ? Is this some kind of hip, inside webmaster humor ?

 

[mjp]

Neither one of those reads like Bukowski to me.

The second one isn't Bukowski.

I don't know that for a fact, I'm basing the statement on my impression that it far, far too shitty to be Bukowski (apologies to anyone who prefers it).

In fact, I was going to comment that it was a great juxtaposition, those two poems next to each other, because it shows how different from the norm Bukowski was in the earlier days.

Apropos of nothing, why does the word "Bukowski" get the red squiggly spelling error treatment ON A WEBSITE DEVOTED TO BUKOWSKI ? Is this some kind of hip, inside webmaster humor ?

You can't blame the hip webmaster for that (do they still say "webmaster"?). That's your browser doing that. Usually you can right click and "add to dictionary" and it will stop flagging the word.

 

[cirerita]

The second poem is not by B.

 

[number6horse]

Upon my successful completion of bringing sexy back, I will also bring back "webmaster" - don't worry.

Thanks for the right-click info.

 

[Lolita Twist]

They sound like Joe Cardillo - a Bukowski enthusiast, and my old professor.

See his Rock n Roll Journals and Artifact. Emphasis on the former.

 

[Rekrab]

The first poem sounds very much like Bukowski to me. It has his fingerprints all over it. The second poem, not at all like him.

 

[the only good poet]

The first poem is the first poem in Madrigals (with some minor changes - minus the first line, for instance.) and is called 22,000 dollars in 3 months. Database also has it in the '93 anthology Run with the Hunted.

 

[Rekrab]

$12K to $22 K -- inflation?

 

[the only good poet]

Yes, it's not like the poem rested on the title.

 

[Andreas]

The first poem is the first poem in Madrigals (with some minor changes - minus the first line, for instance.) and is called 22,000 dollars in 3 months.

I wouldn't call that 'some minor changes'. Blowing off the complete first line of a poem can't be 'minor'.
Comparing the poem above (as a whole) with 22,ooo Dollars in 3 Months just reinforces the impression.

A (needless) question comes to my mind:
If you were looking through an appealing collection of poetry that claims to contain "Early Selected Poems, 1946-1966", but then you'd suddenly realize that the very first poem of this book is a fucked up and castrated 1988-or-whenever-version of a poem originally written in ca. 1962 (according to a database you accidentally have access to), would you still buy this book, or would you hesitate?

I'm looking forward to a collection of Bukowskis poetry that hasn't been 'edited' at all.

 

[zobraks]

... and McKelvey drunk on the shore...

I wonder whether it's the same McKelvey as in Pulp.