Looking for a short poem

[tc145]

Looking for a short poem title by Buk, in it he talks about an elephant and remarks how much they like the sun. Can't remember the title of it or what book it's in. Any help would be great especially if I can find the full poem online.

Thanks

 

[bospress.net]

Elephants in the Zoo from Pleasures of the Damned

 

[Black Swan]

elephants in the zoo

in the afternoon
they lean against
one another
and you can see how much
they like the sun.

 

[mjp]

What you're thinking of is a gutted, bastardized, murdered version of this:

 

[Erica C.]

Where do you find this stuff, mjp? This is an amazing and beautiful poem. I can't believe it was so savagely edited into the shorter version.

 

[mjp]

There is a database, see the "Search for poems" link above.

There is also this little site.

There are also decades of research behind practically every element of this site, not only by me, but by many people who are much smarter and more persistent than me, who have dedicated unreasonable amounts of their lives to shedding light on everything Bukowski.

A lot of people start and stop at the latest posts on the forum here, but they are only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

 

[james]

that's fucking ridiculous. i'm assuming john martin is responsible for this...he should have his writing hand amputated. well, i mean EDITING hand...

 

[Purple Stickpin]

Seems word for word was good enough for William Packard at the NYQ (well, he had the audacity to italicize the word sway rather than underlining it), but somehow it wasn't good enough for No Pleasures from the Damned Poems.

 

[Bukfan]

that's fucking ridiculous. i'm assuming john martin is responsible for this...he should have his writing hand amputated. well, i mean EDITING hand...

Why let him off easy?

 

[David]

Yes, I love that poem. It was a perfect one before it got "improved".

 

[Black Swan]

That one got seriously edited, almost wiped out!

 

[Rekrab]

Huh? What just happened? That was editing???

I like that line "and who started this,/ anyhow?" Well, I like all of the original lines, but that line made me laugh.

 

[d gray]

elephants in the zoo

in the afternoon
they lean against
one another
and you can see how much
they like the sun.

that reads like something my 5 year old would write in his school exercise book.

 

[Erik]

Makes me think of Buk's "Marina-poems".
Sort of starts out like a children's poem, but get's sidetracked by th "big asses".
On the other hand kids just love to talk about naughty things like big asses....
:)
Marina would have been 9 i -73. Maybe Buk wrote this after taking her to the zoo one day.

Hey! That's an idea! A collection of Buk-poems for children!
That should catch the media's attention eh?