blue beads and bones OR Only The Truly Lost (1 Viewer)

[HenryChinaski]

now,
I've heard this poem a million times from the King Of Poets disc.
Track # 11: Only The Truly Lost

I'm not quite sure of the line breaks or stanzas but here it is.
Let's compare.

Only The Truly Lost
It is not true
that Dr. Guillotine,
who they named the thing after
died under it.

that's movies
and as the orchid dies
without a hospital
and the grass goes insane,
let's say one for the lost.

this man i met in the bar
at 8:30 in the morning
across from MacAuthur Park,
we're sitting over our beers,
he and i and an old whore
who slept in an unlocked car that night,
and wore this huge blue necklace
as protection

this guy said to me
"look at my arms.
i'm all bone, no meat on me."

and he pulled back his sleeves
and he was right,
bone with just a layer of skin,
hanging like paper.

he said,
"I don't eat nothin."

I bought him a beer
and the whore a beer.

now there, i thought
is a man who doesnt eat meat.
he doesnt even eat vegetables,
kind of a saint.

it was like a church in there
anyhow
only the truly lost
sat in bars
on tuesday mornings
at 8:30 am.

then the whore said,
"jesus, if i don't score tonight,
i'm finished. i'm scared.
i'm really scared.
you guys can go to skid row
when things get bad...but
where can a woman go?"

we couldnt answer her.
she picked up her beer
with one hand and
played with her blue beeds with the other.

I finished my beer
and went up to the corner
and got a racing form from
Tommy the newsboy,
age 61.

"ya got a hot one today? "

"no tommy, i gotta see the board.
money makes them run."

"i'll give ya 2 bucks,
bet one for me."

I take his 2 bucks.
that will buy a sandwich,
pay parking, plus two coffees.

i get into my car,
drive off,
too early for the track.

blue beads and bones
the universe in bent.
a cop rides his bike behind me,
the day has truly begun.

(disreguard capitols and spelling errors. i just typed it from the spoken word track.)

NOW

Page 62, The Pleasures of the Damned,
blue beads and bones
(as it reads)

as the orchid dies
and the grass goes
insane, let's have one for the lost:

I met an old man
and a tired whore
in a bar
at 8:00 in the morning
across from MacArthur Park-
we were sitting over our beers
he and I and the old whore
who had slept in an unlocked car
the night before
and wore a blue necklace.
the old guy said to me:
"Look at my arms. I'm all bone.
no meat on me."
and he pulled back his sleeves
and he was right-
bone with just a layer of skin
hanging like paper.
he said, "I don't eat
nothin'."
I bought him a beer and the
whore a beer.
now there, I thought, is a man
who doesn't eat
meat, he doesn't eat
vegetables. kind of a saint.
it was like a church in there
as only the truly lost
sit in bars on Tuesday mornings
at 8:00 a.m.
then the whore said, "Jesus,
if I don't score tonight I'm
finished. I'm scared, I'm really
scared. you guys can go to skid row
when things get bad. but where can a
woman go?"
we couldn't answer her.
she picked up her beer with one hand
and played with her blue beads with the
other.
I finished my beer, went to the
corner and got a Racing Form from Teddy the
newsboy-age 61.
"you got a hot one today?"
"no, Teddy, I gotta see the board; money
makes them run."
"I'll give you 4 bucks. bet one for
me."
I took his 4 bucks. that would buy a sandwich,
pay parking, plus 2
coffees. I got into my car, drove
off. too early for the
track. blue beads and bones. the
universe was
bent. a cop rode his bike right up
behind me. the day had really
begun.

The differences are obvious. The original version is way better.
WHY BUTCHER THIS GREAT POEM?
You decide. not a big deal but i noticed it right away. the second version seems almost, generic.

EDIT: I checked the versions in What Matters Most... and The Pleasures proof. They're both the same. John Martin must've reworked the poem for What Matters...but my question is, why?

anybody know where this first appeared? What matters most is a posthumous collection so it must've appeared somewhere else first? an old mag, something??

I'm just kinda curious.

 

[mjp]

John Martin must've reworked the poem for What Matters...but my question is, why?

Well, obviously, he was improving it! ;)

"tired whore" sounds like one of Martin's "improvements" to Women. Though it's more difficult to lay any poem changes on him since we don't have any Bukowski complaints about that anywhere (that I know of, anyway -- and Bukowski certainly wrote different versions of the same poem on many occasions).

 

[cirerita]

"Only the truly lost" was published in ATOM MIND, Vol.3, No.9, Fall 1992.
"blue beads and bones" appeared for the first time in What Matters Most... unless it was published in a really obscure mag I've never heard of.