People Look Like Flowers - Rollcall. (1 Viewer)

[place holder]

It's three days and counting. Already got the confirmation from amazon.

Your Amazon.com order has shipped.
1 The People Look Like Flowers... $18.15 1 $18.15

I can't wait for it's arrival, I kind of hope it's not his last, but i'll be reading every page like it were. It's a book of joy and sadness, because I'm afraid that this may be it. No more new Bukowski words to look forward too.

 

[place holder]

excerpt

Here's one of the poem's from the book, as listed in amazon's book desc.

the gas line is leaking, the bird is gone from the
cage, the skyline is dotted with vultures;
Benny finally got off the stuff and Betty now has a job
as a waitress; and
the chimney sweep was quite delicate as he
giggled up through the
soot.
I walked miles through the city and recognized
nothing as a giant claw ate at my
stomach while the inside of my head felt
airy as if I was about to go
mad.
it's not so much that nothing means
anything but more that it keeps meaning
nothing,
there's no release, just gurus and self-
appointed gods and hucksters.
the more people say, the less there is to say.
even the best books are dry sawdust.

"”from "fingernails; nostrils; shoelaces"

 

[roni]

That is a damn beautiful one!
Thanks placeholder!

 

[Bukfan]

Yeah, thanks! - I like the last sentence of the poem - "...even the best books are dry sawdust." - but I don't think I agree...

 

[deadhead]

I wonder how the man would react to this adulation. I doubt he'd like it. I appreciate your obvious good taste but c'mon. If you are going to write, if you are going to do anything, do it well.

 

[mjp]

Hey, deadhead! You're back! And you still don't make any sense!

 

[Domator]

It's amazing that after 13 years of Bukowski's death we can still buy his books. Not re-edition but new, premiere material.
People Look Like Flower it's his final book or still some poems/stories waiting for publish?

 

[roni]

I can hardly imagine, this wouldbe the last.
It is known, that the material, still unpublished, is enormous (sp?).
Who started that rumor, this could be the last publication?

Besides more unpublished work, I still hope for something other, that Every immortal author deserves:
A critical edition of ALL stuff available, in chronological order (with the date given, if available) and known variations.
This would make ONE HELL of an edition!!!!!
It's NO doubt to me, that One day, this will take place. But ain't sure, if WE will see this day. The literary world realizes it's Best not always in time. (The first acceptable ed of Nietzsche took place in the late 60s - nearly 80 years after his last writing, the most reliable ed of Schopenhauer dates from the 80s - some 130 years after his death.)
But, as they say, hope is the last to die.

 

[Domator]

I can hardly imagine, this wouldbe the last.
It is known, that the material, still unpublished, is enormous (sp?).
Who started that rumor, this could be the last publication?

Well, i found this in one of Internet store (perhaps text from back cover):

The fifth and final collection of poems from one of America's best-known contemporary writers of poetry and prose--and many would claim its most influential and imitated poet.

But then i saw on Amazon this:
http://www.amazon.com/Pleasures-Damned-Poems - The Pleasures of the Damned: Poems, 1951-1993

So maybe The People its the last book from new poems series but they still have new material from various years to publish? I hope.

 

[Bukfan]

Domator, I think it was mentioned somewhere in the forum that "Pleasures..." is just a kind of "Best of Buk" book - no new material, unfortunately. But let's hope they will publish new material in the future...

 

[nymark]

It's true that "Pleasures" is a retrospective, but it will also include a handful of unpublished poems.

 

[bright]

Big merchandise has gotten to you, hank.
The cowards came after your death,
will you survive?

:)

 

[Domator]

Yesterday I ordered this book in hardcover. And just like place holder - I can't wait!

 

[roni]

Big merchandise has gotten to you, hank.
The cowards came after your death,
will you survive?

Don't worry babe. This guy will ALWAYS survive.
Like Plato and Shakespeare and Whitman always will. Like Schopenhauer and Beethoven will. Like Ginsberg hardly will, like Grass never will, like Madonna and the Beatles will, and the Stones. Like Dostoevski will, like Kerouac never will, like any given contemporary German poet Never will, like Fante (unfortunately) never will. Like Van Gogh always will (but would've prefered to have a life before physical death, I guess), like Raffael will, like Warhol will, like Burne-Jones will not, though he'd deserve.

Our hero is one with the immortals, even now, short after his death.

Our longshot poet for broke readers, our Rimbaud (as he stated once, with ironical meaning, but sure aware, it was RIGHT!), our Old-man-dead-in-a-room, so we don't need to lie there dead, (like another guy once hung on a cross, so we don't have to).

He is one with the immortals even now. No merchandizer, no literature-teacher, no bad epigone will ever take this from him. And thanks for listening.

 

[HenryChinaski]

the people look like flowers...it's got some pretty good old poems but the collection as a whole failed to captivate me in a certain way. i dunno what it is. I probably won't be buying a hardcover of this.

 

[Paul Sempschi]

I doubt if this will be the last you see of Buk. Besides "Pleasures of the Damned" there are still a score of Uncollected Prose, Christ you could lift the stuff off this site to put together a nice little collection. Surely it would be better going than a best-of but it may take time, perhaps even a different publisher.
As well there are still his short stories, those that have been uncollected and those that were not published (there are a few of varying quality kicking around, I hear)- also what about the Notes of a Dirty Old Man articles that werent published? That would make for a very good section in an uncollected prose book.
Not to mention the various fragments, unfinished prose and unfinished novels. These too would be beneficial to publish (they published Kafka's "Zurau Aphorisms", anything's possible). However it may take time, a new publisher and perhaps a new executor to Buk's estate. One that is more interested in scrapping at the bottom of the Buk-barrel than quality work (presumably there is just no longer any quality unreleased Buk poems kicking around). So I guess when you read this collection, keep in mind that this may be the last you hear of him but this isnt it.

 

[Irrevocable Nothing]

I wonder how the man would react to this adulation. I doubt he'd like it. I appreciate your obvious good taste but c'mon. If you are going to write, if you are going to do anything, do it well.

Haha, do it "well?" Doing anything "well" is so subjective.

 

[OnTilt]

damn, i would like to read the poem he would write about another book being published 13 years after he died.

hey God? anyway you could ship this guy back out here for a few months to look around and write another quick book or three?

thanks.

 

[place holder]

This is my first ecco book. I really hate the pages, they are of poor quality. It bugs my eyes to be reading one page and seeing straight through to the words on the opposite side. Love the author, hate the publisher.

 

[hoochmonkey9]

still waiting for this one to come in the mail. as long as there's 5 or 6 poems that have the spark I'll be happy.
of course, I'm getting it free, so I can't complain.

 

[HenryChinaski]

yeah, thats the best way to get em huh.

ecco seems to get reamed a lot. i see a pattern emerging.