In which year did Bukowski wrote Democracy? (1 Viewer)

Sorry if this has been asked before but I ran a search for it and seemingly it was not.
I would like to know when did this poem came into existence? I guess it either could be an uncollected work that first published in 2004 but yet could have been written in, say 1976 as well as a left over from Love Is a Dog from Hell...

"the problem, of course, isn't the Democratic System,
it's the
living parts which make up the Democratic System.
the next person, you pass on the street,
multiply
him or
her by
3 or 4 or 30 or 40 million
and you will know
immediately
why things remain non-functional
for most of
us."
(The Pleasures of the Damned, 216: 1-13)
 
Bukowski didn't write democracy, John Martin did.

The original poem isn't about democracy, it's about the annihilation of the human race. Written when Reagan was president, right before the end of the cold war, pre-perestroika. If you recall, there was a lot of talk of nuclear war in those days, movies about it, preoccupation with it, protest against it. The poem is talking about a bomb - or bombs - being the "cure" for humanity. There is no mention of the "democratic system" or "political cures."

Martin, as he was known to do, misunderstood it, and rewrote it to fit his misunderstanding. He turned it into a criticism of the democratic system, which it was not. It was a criticism of the system as a whole, something Bukowski wrote about often.

poem1986-07-13-the_other_day_i_saw_a_man.jpg


democracy.jpg


democracy2.jpg
 
Jesus, a truly fucked up poem.
Sometimes I ask myself if there are moments in Martin's life when he is ashamed of himself and knows that he screwed it up.
 
When talking about another X-Ray broadside (or card) Brewton said the poem fragment came from Martin. He didn't send the manuscript or a copy of the manuscript, just his (Martin's) version. So I'd assume that was also the case here.

Without the manuscripts, Brewton wouldn't have any way of knowing that he was being fed Martin's regurgitations. He trusted Martin. Like most people did. Unfortunately.
 
When talking about another X-Ray broadside (or card) Brewton said the poem fragment came from Martin. He didn't send the manuscript or a copy of the manuscript, just his (Martin's) version. So I'd assume that was also the case here.

Without the manuscripts, Brewton wouldn't have any way of knowing that he was being fed Martin's regurgitations. He trusted Martin. Like most people did. Unfortunately.
That makes sense since there would be no way Brewton could have gotten the ms. And the fact that there are no corrections on the Bukowski ms suggests that it is the final version I would think......So I assume Martin must have retyped the poem and sent it to Brewton? Bizarre but not unexpected...
 
Retyped at some point, yes, it would have to be. Brewton would know the particulars. Or Bill Roberts. He also received excerpts from Martin to use in the Buddha Smiles set that he published...
 
"the problem never was the
System, the problem was

you"

God damn. The original poem has so much style and power and is an excellent example of Buk's natural talent. I love his use of the word "wail" too.
 

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