Poem for My Daughter - Showcase, 1966

[cirerita]

"Poem For My Daughter," in SHOWCASE no. 3 (July 1966).

Unpublished as of 2006.

 

[Olaf]

'now she sleeps beautifully like
boats on the Nile'

A simple and effective image!
Bukowski knew the power of the simple...gotta love it!!

 

[reasonknot]

yes
'like electocuted wax'
you gotta love it
fer show

 

[Short Bus]

"If it weren't a responsibiity" is a very interesting line considering the poem about his father ( I don't know if he wrote on when his mother died) and the image about BUK and Jane's son at Janes funeral.

 

[bospress.net]

Unpublished as of 2006.

Will be published in 2007! it is included in the new book of poems, "The People Look Like Flowers At Last".

BIll

 

[cirerita]

great! the good thing about uploading poems here and then seeing them published by Ecco is that we can appreciate the editing, if any...

 

[bospress.net]

Hi,
I just compared them and there are many, many changes.....

Of course, given the time since it would have been written, it is entirely possible that Buk edited the poem.

Best,
Bill

 

[cirerita]

remember B used to send the poems and then he would forget them. I'm almost sure B did little or no editing at all once he sent the poems to the mags or Martin...

 

[cirerita]

Bill,
maybe you'd like to compare "Rimbaud Be Damned" -the version I sent you over- and the one which appears on The People Look Like...

 

[bospress.net]

Hi Abel,
Please send me the ms and I'll check it. I cannot find the post in the forum...

Bill

 

[mjp]

I think he's referring to the one he sent on paper with the DVD...

 

[cirerita]

Bill,
mjp is dead right...

 

[bospress.net]

Ok. Let me find it....

Bill

 

[bospress.net]

Hi Abel and others,
The poem starts off:

it was in Sante Fe.
we sat up waiting for her.

I see that the first line was not on the ms. Also some other changes. The same feel, but certainly a different version.

Bill

 

[Erik]

"If it weren't a responsibiity" is a very interesting line considering the poem about his father ( I don't know if he wrote on when his mother died) and the image about BUK and Jane's son at Janes funeral.

What poem is that? He has so many about the old brute.
After watching BIT the other day I've been browsing poems in run with the hunted (1993) and came across the poem "my old man" where Buk treats his father with with an impressive, almost forgiving(!), amount of insight. Part of it goes like this:

one evening he walked in​

with the pages of​

one of my short stories​

(which I had never submitted ​

to him) ​

and he said, "this is​

a great short story."​

I said, "o.k.," ​

and he handed it to me​

and I read it.​

it was a story about​

a rich man​

who had a fight with​

his wife and had​

gone out into the night​

for a cup of coffee​

and had observed​

the waitress and the spoons​

and the forks and the ​

salt and pepper shakers​

and the neon sign​

in the window​

and then had gone back​

to his stable​

to see and touch his​

favorite horse​

who then​

kicked him in the head​

and killed him.​

somehow​

the story held​

meaning for him​

though​

when I had written it​

I had no idea​

of what I was writing about.​

so I told him,​

"o.k., old man, you can​

have it."​

and he took it​

and walked out​

and closed the door.​

I guess that's​

as close​

as we ever got.​

A new reader will probably hardly notice this poem, but knowing what his dad put him thru its pretty impressive. Guess it could be called a "bluebird-poem" - and it was written as early as 1977. (This is completely different to Buk's "bitch-slapping" side.) I like the way he lets his father, almost respectfully, close the door when leaving. Nice touch.

Also notice that Buk here describes one of his very early short stories (maybe).
Guess we'll never know the true story behind the anger of Buk's father. Like what did he experience during his war-service? Does anyone remember any other poems like this? (PS: is "o.k." usually written with periods like this?)

 

[cirerita]

Erik,
I used the ending of this poem in my dissertation precisely for the reason you mentioned: it's one of the few -if not the only- poem where B DOESN'T depict his father in harsh terms.

 

[mjp]

After watching BIT the other day I've been browsing poems in run with the hunted (1993) and came across the poem "my old man"

"my old man" originally appeared in Love is a Dog From Hell, for those of you who don't have the Run With the Hunted sampler...