Joan Jobe Smith, Appreciation Thread (1 Viewer)

HenryChinaski

HenryChinaski

Founding member
"The poems of Joan Jobe Smith have the reality of force properly put down on paper . . . a strange woman, a strange, good, basic woman." "”Charles Bukowski (1975)

Some of you may or may not know, that Joan Jobe Smith is a writer, poet, at one time go-go dancer, Charles Bukowski enthusiast, and the founder of Pearl, A Literary Magazine. I recently sent her a letter and today I checked my mailbox and there was a reply.

Unfortuantely, it wasn't from Joan herself. I received a letter from Marilyn Johnson, co-editor of Pearl and she sent me some troubling news. Joan was unable to reply to my letter and has fallen ill for quite some time now. So ill that she can no longer work on Pearl or The Bukowski Review. As a result of her illness, they are ceasing publication of The Bukowski Review and she is no longer editing the poetry issue of Pearl.

Marilyn aslo sent me a copy of Joan's book Bukowski Boulevard, and best wishes with my poetry and interest in Joan and Bukowski.

This thread is for Joan. I hope all of you will remember her in your thoughts and in your prayers, if you have any.

Thanks for the wonderful poetry Joan, and I am sure I speak for everyone here when I say you're in our thoughts.

http://www.pearlmag.com/

<3
 
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That's rough. Hopefully whatever it is, she'll recover. We don't need to be reminded of age and mortality, but it happens daily anyway.
 
I highly recommend all of you picking up a copy of Bukowski Boulevard if you don't have it already.

Joan puts the word down and it flows with ease, like water. It's simplistic yet genius.
 
Joan Jobe Smith is not only an accomplished poet and editor-she is a great human being. Joan was kind and encouraging to me when I submitted three poems to Bukowski Review in 2003, hoping she could find one she liked. Given the fact that Charles Bukowski is my muse, I was thrilled beyond expectation when she wrote a very warm letter back(not like the typical editor we are used to) saying she accepted all three which were to be published in Bukowski Review # 3, #4, and # 5. She was also gracious enough to set the stage for me being published in the Annual Edition of the Bukowski Society in Germany in the same year. What a wonderful lady I thought. On June 5,2004, Joan hand wrote a letter to me concerning her health problems among other matters. Joan's husband,poet Fred Voss, "all but carried " her to the Hollywood premiere of the Buk documentary "Born Into This". Joan, like Cupcakes, was an out-take for reasons we all know.Joan could care less-all she wanted was the pleasure of Bukowski' company. I was excited when I received my copies of Bukowski Review # 4 recently, not because of the usual reasons, but because I saw this as a sign that Joan was doing well. Marilyn Johnson, one of the famous three femme editors, of Pearl with Joan and Barbara Hauck , and a great writer and editor herself, wrote me that Joan was not doing well and Bukowski Review # 4 would be the last issue. The cover has Buk's famous Men's Lib Poster which Joan explains in one of the articles, "Because of Bukowski" was drawn in 1975 for Pearl #4 , the all male-chauvinistic pig edition, which also never came out. It was supposed to be a picture of Joan as she looked in 1975.Joan says in the same article that she was not a feminist, not a smoker , and not an Amazon as depicted in Buk's picture. But I am sure to Buk Joan was larger than life because of many reasons including his admiration for her writing and the fact that he failed to bed her-although he tried mightily. If you are not familiar with the writing or biting humor of Joan-she is worth looking for. She is not a great woman poet. She is a great poet. Pray for Joan and support Pearl magazine-http://www.pearlmag.com/
 
Joan....

HenryChinaski said:
"The poems of Joan Jobe Smith have the reality of force properly put down on paper . . . a strange woman, a strange, good, basic woman." "”Charles Bukowski (1975)

Some of you may or may not know, that Joan Jobe Smith is a writer, poet, at one time go-go dancer, Charles Bukowski enthusiast, and the founder of Pearl, A Literary Magazine. I recently sent her a letter and today I checked my mailbox and there was a reply.
Click to expand...

Hi HenryChinaski,

Just came across your post about Joan, and I found it of great interest. I went to Pearl looking for an example of her poetry, and I came away empty. Any possibility of sharing something of hers without getting in trouble with Pearl?...Anything at all. If not, thanks for sharing what you have about this woman of the word. I'm not familiar with her, but I'm always on the lookout for authentic voices. I hope also that her health has improved.

Sincerely, Poptop
 
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sure thing poptop. you can purchase some of her work @ the pearl site.

I don't think Joan would get too upset if I posted a couple of my favorites.
Here's one from Bukowski Boulevard that stood out to me.

REACHING FOR THE STEEL

"I believe that Linda thinks that I am in love with you so you'd better not mention a casual correspondence." -Charles Bukowski

Reach for the steel, sister, Bukowski's
then-girlfriend Linda King wrote me two
weeks after my awful party I'd given in
his honor, and she meant it, except that,
luckily, neither of us had a gun or stood
facing each other at a sundown on a dusty
Dodge City street, although while reading
her four page, single-spaced typewritten
letter telling me a thing or two or thousand
about my being a backstabbing, side-winding
man-stealer, I felt each adjective, each
expletive ping-ping-ping like target practice
off my worried head. I was innocent, though,
I'd not given the party just to get Bukowski
off to myself, but the evidence was against me
because everywhere Bukowski went back then
women wanted a piece of him and his poetry.
So I threw the letter from Linda away, regretting
nearly every day that I hadn't kept it, for as the
many years passed, a swirling dervish of decades
as Linda and I grew gray and overweight, all that
pout and passion and her murderous mantra,
"Reach for the steel, sister," became the gruff
and gritty stuff of grand opera, that letter, surely,
a libretto good enough for the gods.

-Joan Jobe Smith
"Bukowski Boulevard"
 
Here is another poem by Joan Jobe Smith:

Bukowski Boulevard

For years before Bukowski died, just
to feel Bukowski's vibes, Fred and I'd
drive across the Vincent Thomas Bridge
to San Pedro to Santa Cruz Street we
named Bukowski Boulevard where Bukowski
lived in a big house with blue awnings
we'd drive by again and again and on
the way we'd say what would happen this
time: this time Bukowski'd be standing
on his sidewalk and he'd wave at us
and yell. "Fredd Voss. Joan Jobe Smith
I've been waiting for you. Come on in.
I've got your favorite beer, Fred, and
Joan, some pouilley-fuissé for you"
and we'd go into Bukowski's big house
where Bukowski'd offer us his softest
chairs, he'd tell us his secrets, why
he REALLY wrote poetry, he'd show us
his limited editions and when Fred
admired "Crucifix in a Death Hand,"
Buk'd say, "Take it, kid, it's yours
Yeh, I know Red Skodolsky's priced it
at two'thou, but it's yours. Fred, for
I've always admired your work. And for
you, Joan, here's an ode, an apologia
for all the times I've insulted you."
Then he'd lead us to his dining room
for the feast he'd prepared just for us:
Peking duck, prime rib roast au jus,
chocolate chip ice cream and then on
our way home, Fred and I'd say. "Man,
that Bukowski, he's gotten soft. From
now on we're hangin' with Micheline."
But since Bukowski's died, we hardly
ever drive by his house anymore, and
when we do, it's hardly any fun at all

"This is a great house, bring my bottles up to
the 2nd floor & type untill 5 A.M...fights
with women, cars roaring out the driveway at
sunrise It's great. The house & me. I love my
3 cats."
- C.B.

This is one of five poems by Joan Jobe Smith from the book "Drinking with Bukowski - Recollections of the poet laureate of skid row", edited by Daniel Weizman...
 
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hell yes. I thought this thread had died. Joan is such a great writer. I'll post another one when I have more time. Anybody else have any poems to add?
 
JoanJobeSmithAppreciates!

just by accident i found the Joan Jobe Smith Appreciation link to Bukowski.net... i never google myself (it's so scary since i read a nasty reveiw of one of my readings back in 2004) but today i was looking for an old poem that used to be on the internet ("What I Learned From the Movies") and wow: here were all these kind log-onners chatting abt me and my work + my life with/without Bukowski! i was SO astonished and VERY appreciative of all the kind thoughts and even prayers for my health... sick days run away like wild horses over the bedposts as i am still alive tho not well; so i want to immediately thank those who wrote nice things--never did i expect this, cd've imagined it, that so many knew of me and cared... pls know how much i miss poetry, reading it and writing it and the fun i had editing Pearl and then the Bukowski Review... Bukowski was the most fascinating human being i ever knew...i was lucky to have known him and had him briefly as my mentor... thank you, Buk fans, for thinking abt me... much love... joan jobe smith.. p.s. my most recent work (2007), which took me 50 years to complete: Joan's Own Good 4 YOU Cook Book (poetry + recipes) from pearlmag.com
 
joanJOBEsmith said:
just by accident i found the Joan Jobe Smith Appreciation link to Bukowski.net......(snip)... him briefly as my mentor... thank you, Buk fans, for thinking abt me... much love... joan jobe smith.. p.s. my most recent work (2007), which took me 50 years to complete: Joan's Own Good 4 YOU Cook Book (poetry + recipes) from pearlmag.com
Click to expand...

Welcome I will check out that cook book. Hang around a while we would love to have you here.
 
Glad to hear from you Joan! Hope you start feeling better. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR REPLYING TO THIS THREAD. I THINK I SPEAK FOR EVERYONE WHEN I SAY THAT YOU'RE IN OUR THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS.

please be well,

-ryan

p.s. bukowski boulevard sits in my bookshelf along with Buk, Fante, and Celine.
 
hello chinaski & Mr. Love... it took me most of yesterday to learn how to log on and register--with the help of bukowski.net helper... ima d.w. noob when it comes to computers, blogs, youTube, et al... (d.w. stands for dimwit)... i just yesterday saw myself reading a baseball poem (re: henhouse website).. the only video ever of me reading... wow.. this technology today... i've been bedridden too long... but today i found joanjobeapp again and am amazed again... i haven't written or been published for some time; haven't given a reading in more than a year... but i may have a piece of my memoir published in UK's Ambit this winter... my memoirs are stored in Kinko's boxes beneath our coffeetable... a 22 pp chapter abt Bukowski, Beer Can in the Garden, appeared in UK's Beat Scene when they published a special Buk issue Mar 2004--10th anni of Buk's demise... alas... what a big space in bigspace Buk left... wow, wdn't he be loving the sure bets outa youTube, etcs... not to mention this buk.net which has gotta be making him har-harring amongst the trumpets... !! his daughter marina, by the way, is expecting her 2nd child any day--Buk's 2nd grandchild... and i heard from Linda King 2 months ago; she'd hoped to have a big Buk Birthday Bash in LA on DeLongpre St, on lawn of apt bldg where Buk lived for a time; but the event didn't happen... Buk-lover Poets such as Michael Madsen, Gerald Locklin, Fred Voss, Linda and me were to read hagiography... wd've been fun... for "Henry Chinaski": in 1973 i wrote a parody of Buk's fiction i titled "Empty Beer Cans and Boxer Shorts" (misplaced modifier intended) "by Chuck Upski"... sent it to Buk and he loved it... there's also a male model in UK who's named himself Henry Chinaski... ok, so here i yam... yacking away abt Bukowski... i shd shut up and try to log in; hope it works...love, joan jobe smith


p.s. for chinaski: what an honor to have my BukBlvd sit on yr bookshelf next to celine, fante and Buk...celine is supreme; fante is fabulous and one of my favorite writers, next to Buk... thank you for this inestimable tribute... had i not stumbled on to this jjs appreciation at buk.net yesterday, i'd've never known... you don't know what this means to me... love, joan jobe smith


pps: in my cookbook is recipe for Charles Bukowski Vegetarian Chili which i fixed for him in 1975 at a party i gave in His Honor... he was often a vegetarian then... as was i...
 
i don't think you know what it means to me to actually have a brief correspondence with you. gosh, i'll probably start spelling words wrong and then just choke up and wuss out on posting this anyway. thanks so much for taking time out of your day to reply. it really means a lot. hope you get to feeling better and I'm going to re-read bukblvd tonight just because.

thanks again.
 
joanJOBEsmith said:
i just yesterday saw myself reading a baseball poem (re: henhouse website).. the only video ever of me reading... wow.. this technology today...
Click to expand...

to what Joan mentioned above. Joan looks good there.

Here is some of her fine writing. Joan was and made still be a hottie.
3 Poems

We are going to ask, "Who is the poet in Picking the Lock on the Door to Paradise?".
 
joanJOBEsmith said:
... i just yesterday saw myself reading a baseball poem (re: henhouse website).. the only video ever of me reading... wow.. this technology today...
Click to expand...
Ha - I built the old Hen House studios web site (and a complicated admin control panel for uploading video and audio and adding artists, etc.) from the ground up. Small world, small world. Now it's gone, replaced by a blog template. Ah well.

I remember the baseball videos. I was still working on the site at that time.
 
Joan,
cool to have you here!

You may remember one Falko Hennig and one Ben Lauterbach from the german Bukowski-society, do you?
Well, i'm in there too. And i'm sure they'd greet and say hello to you if they knew you're here.
so - hello! greetings! welcome!
 
links that are NOT on cracked china...

roni, mjp (did i remember those initials right?), chinaski, love, et al... how do they do that? make those links? so now everyone knows how to make my veg chili! hen house web site maker: the site is amazing... you are genius... when i read my baseball poems that day (when? 2002?) i didn't know i was being filmed--not till afterwards.. otherwise i wd've looked up occasionally... one poem i read was abt Joe DiMaggio touching my fishnet stockings (one night i served him when i was a cocktail waitress at the Grand Hotel in 1969 and he was mgr of the Giants--the team staying in OC for a game at Angel Stadium)... i still have the fishnet stockings; i dabbed a spot of fingernail polish near the knee where JoeDiMaggio touched me... at the Pasadena Library baseball poetry reading i brought the fishnets with me and held them up--got some laughs... in 1969 joe dimaggio was still handsome and he made my 29-yr-old heart hip a hop... but i stupidly mentioned the Paul Simon lyrics "where did you go, Joe DiMaggio?" (and giggled: "You went here, Joe DiMaggio!" and waved my arms around to indicate the cocktail lounge); worse stupid: I asked a question abt Marilyn and he glowered at me and moved to another cocktail waitress's area... but i got his autograph--and his telephone number... gave the autograph to my son who had it framed 5 years ago--he's been offered $500 for it.. maybe more now because Joe Himself addressed the envelope he mailed it to my son in... recently i gave the cappuccino cup Joe sipped from to my son-in-law... ok, so see how i can gab on? roni: say Hello to the BukSociety for me! i love all the postcards you send me from germany!...mjp: say hello to Michael C!... Love: thanks for making the link to my chili & Secret Beans poem... "Hank": thank you, too... i love to cook... just grilled some fresh broccoli on my iron griddle; now it's lid-on steaming... i luv broccoli... much love to all my fellow buk lovers... joan jobe smith, so grateful so many care abt him, too..
 
Hey Joan... I corresponded with you, and published some of your and Fred's poetry in a mag I did back in the mid-90's called smellfeast. I know I also bought some issues of Pearl and possibly of the Bukowski Review. Cool to see you on here.
 
Hi Joan. - I've got Beatscene's special Buk issue from 2004 with your article, "Beer Can in the Garden", and your book, "Das Ist Alles", with your article, "My Life Without Charles Bukowski". I just wanna say, It was interesting to read about your relationship with Buk, and I enjoyed them both a lot!
 
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descent into the emaelstrom doldrums

...thanks for wondering abt me.. haven't been feeling well, comme habitude... my ill health is progressive and permanent but not terminal and i do have now and then remissions... i inherited All This from my mother... it's boring to explain... i seldom go out but did muster strength last week to attend the memorial of my former mentor at Prestigious UCU... when i was one of 6 accepted to grad school there in 1977, Bukowski wrote me: "feed yr brain on me"... you all know how he felt abt Academia... and how Academia felt and still do abt him... "a bunch of inbred snobs" he called them... and they've called him much worse... so in 1977 i had 2 Mentors: Presitigous Novelist and Racktotem Man... Bukowski, when referring to Factotum to me in mid-70s, called his novel in prog Racktotem.. i had an autographed copy of it but it was purloined... the memorial at PUCU was dignified and wonderful... the man being remembered was a jolly good soul and much beloved by his former grad students (not many, the dropout rate was abt 1/3; PUCUs can make you crazy).. i had much affection for him all thru the years, tho i never got my memoirs published, only poetry and a few prose pieces... i wanted to make a brilliant comparison between the 2 writer men, but i must end this now...1st: want to mention that another Buk soubriquet i used when parodying his chauv prose was Chuck Belchoutwski... he loved being parodied... will write more tomorrow, if i can...
 
thanx@thanksgivingtime

thank you, all of you, who've tapped me for buddy list... i've lost some of you because i didn't know how to respond--even with excellent guidance by buk.net personally... navigating buk.net is so difficult for me, an utter sputtering technoidiot which i think shd be pronounced teknoydeeot... don't know how to start a "new thread" but perhaps that's best... anyway, happy post-thanksgiving.. i caught the flu... very weird, flu in the inner city of Banquetville... buk, by the way, has a great quote i will try later to make more accurate abt xmas: something like this: "christmas suddenly comes roaring like a rhioceros into the room"... i probably've mixed some oenesco (sp?) with that.. but it sure feels, like it always does, to come thrashing through ... ho ho ho is on the way... hope we all fare well...
 
also, joan, if youre feeling well enough please update us as to how youre doing. i think i speak for everyone when i say that we're interested and hope youre well.
 
Hello this time? If it works...

hello... trying again to say Hello to Buk fans... xmas is over, a new year happened and we got a new President... i need a new computer and have not been able to access the BukNet nor this appreciation thread to gab a lot or even jot a hello... Went Went Girl, a piece of my memoir Tales of An Ancient Go Go Girl, is just out, published in current issue of AMBIT, a British lit journal ... Buk not mentioned in Went Went Girl but he inhabits heartily chapter 12 titled Charles Bukowski: Beercan in the Garden... before i ramble on, i better see if my computer will let me submit this to BukNet or be disappointed again when it just dies on me like it has the 4 other attempts at Buk Talk since before xmas...so: Hello, Buk Fans and: goodbye for now... my best to you all... love, joanJOBEsmith
 
Hi joanJOBEsmith. Is this the one?

http://www.ambitmagazine.co.uk/

What's the issue number we need?

Perhaps #190 - The Most Miserable Go-Go Girl of Them All - but that looks to be about 12 month old now? Hmmm #195 would be the latest. Hope you can let us know for sure.

Be well.
 
Hi Joan,
Do always copy your written text into the clipboard of your computer before pushing the 'submit'-button! If an error occurs, your data will still be there.
 
Beer cans in the garden" - wasn't that the title of JJS's Buk article in Beat Scene's Buk Special mag?
 
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trying again, gods are With me...??

ok, i broke thru to the "other side"--the world of buk fans! what luck... this computer stuff reminds me so much of one of those olde twilight zone epis: there's a world out there but you can only access it via your ear pressed against a drinking glass pressed against the wall; i feel like such a creepy voyeur...thanks for yr responses and attempt to help me access this. i don't think our computer has a "clipboard" but i will look for it. now i know there is "another dimension beyond" the dementia of my technostoopidity. my mem piece Went Went Girl appears in AMBIT 195--and their address is on internet. yes, Beercan in the Garden appeared in Beat Scene, circa 2004; i've expanded the piece and included it as a chapter in my 260pp memoir Tales of An Ancient Go Go Girl. i may submit my Tales to the Drue Heinz 1st novel competition again this year (i tried one other year). but right now getting the thing published in toto seems impossible in these times of tanking things. yes, some of my go-go girls poems appeared in AMBIT's fall, 2007 issue. In 195 Ken Cox illustrated Went Went Girl, doing his 2009 version of those 70s go-go days. such fun to see an artist's take on yr prose/poem ideas. the 1st chapter of my memoir, "Amalgamated Bricks" was published in AMBIT 173, summer 2003 and inspired some fascinating art by mark foreman. AMBIT's a fabulous and respected UK lit mag and has published art by Hockney and Bacon along the way; did an interview of Tennessee Wms long ago. Buk wd've loved to appear here; editor Martin Bax a Buk fan as well as a fan of counterculture americana art and lit. (a very interesting typo i corrected just now when i changed "vulture" to culture.) am verrry cold right now. we have no heat here in my huz fred voss's condo, a "dingbat" design from the 50s with a heating system so toxic we had to turn off pilot light and the structure too rickedty to support upgrade, so i am shivering with quivering fingers as i write this. thanks for providing me with proper spelling of ionesco, buk fan! shall try to submit this now...love, joanJOBEsmitho.. p.s. martin bax is comiing to US in may and i will be part of an AMBIT readiing at Angels' Gate in San Pedro, Calif... no definite date yet...
 
joanJOBEsmith said:
... i don't think our computer has a "clipboard" ...
Click to expand...

every computer has.
Just mark your text (by holding your left mouse-button down and rolling over it), then right-click on your mouse and chose 'copy' - that's all!
The text is in your clipboard now (until you copy another thing in it). To get it outa there, just right-click again and chose 'paste'.
It's very simple.

Welcome on board!
And please get yourself a heater! Being cold will ruin your health AND your comfort!
 

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