Buk's last poem (1 Viewer)

The Last

According to John Martin (in a segment of the film Born Into This) his last poem was the poem referred to as "my first fax poem".

Elsewhere on the forum, bospress.net tells us that it was
actually titled #1. It remains unpublished. He faxed it to John Martin on February 18, 1994. He went into the hospital a couple days later and died 18 days after the fax was sent.

There's a thread about it somewhere, but I can't locate it at the moment.
 
in late '89 buk contributed some poems to the beatscene mag here in england. the last poem they recieved arrived on march 9, the day he died. no doubt the poem, "so now?" has been postumously published in book form, but i don't know where.

the poem ends,

Oh, I was once young,
Oh, I was once unbelievably
young!
 
Do you think smitten is written (hey that rhymes) as in love or as as the active tense of smote?
I read it as a pun intended to read as in love but written with smote (pierced stabbed dying) in mind.

Heck I think Pulp was an intentional F U to critics and suporters alike.
 
Hi Jimmy Snerp,
Great question, and one that I have not been able to figure out. I suppost that it could be either. Sometimes that is what makes great writing, I think. It could be taken either way, and I think that it fits the poem if it is taken as either "smitten". Kinda like the bible can be read different ways depending on your viewpoint, maybe this can too. What do the rest of you think?

BIll
 
so now?

the words have come and gone,
I sit ill.
the phone rings, the cats sleep.
Linda vacuums.
I am waiting to live,
waiting to die.

I wish I could ring in some bravery.
it's a lousy fix
but the tree outside doesn't know:
I watch it moving with the wind
in the late afternoon sun.

there's nothing to declare here,
just a waiting.
each faces it alone.

Oh, I was once young,
Oh, I was once unbelievably
young!
 
thanks for that, and for the line breaks, man oh man, that is a heartbreakingly lovely thing.
off to find 'the laughing heart' and 'un;eash the bluebird', two poems, correct?
 
it was actually one poem, "the laughing heart." when i said "unleash the bluebird," i meant i find those two b. poems emotionally charged. if you read the poem "the bluebird" from the last night of the earth collection (maybe you already have), you'll understand...
 
"the laughing heart" is from the collection, betting on the muse. linda b. read it on the docu the ordinary madness. i wonder if poems were intentionally withheld for postumous publication because they showed a side to b. that wldn't have squared with the image. might make for a good forum??
 
Wow..."#1" gave me chills. I like that title better than "My first fax poem." Cleaner, more direct, more cryptic -- yet clear as a bell. It ought to be in a collection. Both poems should be. Thanks for typing that out for us, Bill. God, I love this Forum. Where else will you find this shit? Where, indeed!
 

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