New poetry collection: "Storm for the Living and the Dead" (2 Viewers)

It felt great to open a book 100% Bukowski. Prayer for the broken-handed lovers, I was shit, I think of Hemingway, all sumptuous.
Glad to see you liked those poems. I think "I was shit" is a good, early poem. When asked about tentative titles for this collection, I suggested "Crayoning the Edges of the World," which is a line off this poem. That was a no-go, though. I also suggested "A Trainride in Hell," and the editors did like that title, but they eventually settled on Storm...
 
Picked up a copy about a week and a half ago. Only had to walk ten minutes down to the local mall book store to find a copy. Had some "found" money (I did jury duty so us jurors got a measly stipend for our trouble) so some of it went to the book. Only a third of the way through. Am happy to read new, unfiltered Bukowski again.
 
I didn't read it yet. In the same mail I received "The bell tolls for no one" and "More notes of a dirty old man". I started with more notes.
 
I probably won't live to see it, but maybe one day people will write about Bukowski's work without all the qualifiers and excuses. Without apologizing for finding some kind of unexpected greatness coming from such an unlikely bottom-feeding, puerile, bestial, drunken burlesque clown and excrement flinger.

Well, Bukowski gave them that ammunition, so I guess it shouldn't be surprising that so many reviewers lean on it like a splintery crutch.

bukowski-ape.jpg
 
A short review via The Washington Independent Review of Books:
http://www.washingtonindependentrev...7-exemplars-poetry-reviews-by-grace-cavalieri

Bukowski was a pedal-to-the-metal poet, writing 45 books, five previously edited posthumously by the intrepid Abel Debritto. Now a sixth — who knew there were this many previously unpublished documents? And this is no disappointment as it’s a rollicking ruthlessly original possessed set of poems. Bukowski writes from the back of the heart. He comes on as a tough criminal in the meadows of poetry; yet, don’t underestimate this grumpy giant. His trained eye, and the width and depth of his experience, says: you’re gonna feel it whether you want to or not. He writes the way he lived — seemingly recklessly and driven by excessive appetites. But how much of this writing is alter ego, and how much autobiography? In truth, Bukowski enjoyed a felicitous long-lasting relationship with Linda Lee Bukowski, who made this collection possible. Nevertheless, he continues to wow the crowd with his epitomized personality and writing of authenticity and swagger. The sweet part of him shows up in his line drawings which are another kind of voice. He was a complex guy. He may be a case study but he’s a fearless writer.


1/2/93 8:43 PM​
Dear New York Quarterly:​
I am a native Albino who lives with a mother with a wooden​
leg and a father who shoots up. I have a parrot, Cagney, who​
says, “Yankee Doodle Dandy!” each time he excretes, which is​
4 or 5 times a day. I once saw J.D. Salinger. Enclosed are my​
Flying Saucer Poems. I have an 18-year old sister with a body​
like you’ve never seen. Nude photos enclosed. In case my​
poems are rejected, these photos are to be returned. In case of​
acceptance, I or my sister can be reached at 642-696-6969.​
sincerely yours,​
Byron Keats​
 
just a reminder of wherever he went in his mind, he went on and on

the glory days from storm is a gem too...

4th floor of a 6th street hotel, windows
open to the city of hell, the precious breathing
of the lonely pigeons.

it's like everybody's dead, everybody's
dead with their heads on,
we've got to conquer the flailing of
nowhere.
:cool:
 
The New York Journal of Books just published a nice review:
http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/storm-living

Most of the snafus in the PBS piece should be gone by now.

I'm very glad to see this new book getting positive reviews, but I do seriously wish that the author of this overall-positive review had not included such sweeping, inaccurate, stereotypical, and unfortunately-widely-believed, generalizations about Bukowski's work, such as this one:

“Never mind that his art is almost always sexually themed"...

and this one, which is even more off-the-mark:

"Sex is Bukowski’s name for love, and there is nothing gentle about it."

Of course, we all know that Buk wrote about sex; it's an integral part of his work. He wrote, in a very blunt and up-front and honest way, about all of life, and sex is obviously part of life. Even for committed celibates, such as monks, sex is still part of life, because without it, none of them, and none of any of us, would even be here! :D

However, Buk's art cannot, and should not, be reduced to such patently false statements as that it is "almost always sexually themed." Even more so, it betrays a serious misunderstanding of his view and experience of, and his writing about, love, to say that "Sex is Bukowski’s name for love, and there is nothing gentle about it." Apparently, this critic has never read any of Buk's great, beautiful, deeply felt, love-and-grief poems for Jane, which are some of my favorites in all of his work...!
 
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Zobraks and roni, maybe I should have become used to it by now, but it still bothers me when critics and journalists, especially, make utterly ridiculous statements about Bukowski's work-- statements which virtually scream that they have read a very, very small amount of what he wrote, and have understood that small amount even less....
 
Went to my local book store in search of this today. Went to the tiny poetry section and they only had pleasures of the damned.. A couple of days ago I would've bought it but thanks to this forum I didn't. Found another book shop who are keeping one for me, looking forward to reading it!
 
Went to my local book store in search of this today. Went to the tiny poetry section and they only had pleasures of the damned.. A couple of days ago I would've bought it but thanks to this forum I didn't. Found another book shop who are keeping one for me, looking forward to reading it!

"The Pleasures of the Damned" contains 276 poems and 100 of them are from the "Martinized" posthumous poem collections (a few more if you include those from "Bone Palace Ballet"). Too bad, the "Martinized" poems were included.
 
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That's a great collection. Thank you !
I bought it about a year ago, and I was saving it, taking my time as long as possible to really enjoy the new stuff.
I have read some comments about it, saying there are just "leftovers", but I don't think that way. There are some great poems in there. I would not say that's my favorite book, but still ...
I liked the one with Ezra and his Cantos, where Buk said that he never really got it, but he was still picking it at the library, more, and more, than anybody...
 

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