The Complete Poems of Charles Bukowski (1 Viewer)

Is there anywhere where I can get a hold of the complete poems of Charles Bukowski?

I have dribs and drabs of poems from online sources, and I own The Pleasures of the Damned; however, I'd love to have access to all of the poems.

I'm probably more concerned with the stuff published in his lifetime.
 
Is that really all of the poetry collections that he published in his lifetime?

I'll start adding them to my basket. Thank you mjp.

It would be great if there were a one-click "boxset" of all the poetry collections he published in his lifetime.

Thanks.
 
Those get you about 99% of the way there, but I'm fairly sure that there are at least a few poems in At Terror Street and Agony Way that aren't aren't also collected in either Burning in Water or Roominghouse. I believe that there may also be a few poems from It Catches my Heart and/or Crucifix that are only available in those volumes or A Bukowski Sampler (and/or in a few other non-BSP publications).
 
Is that really all of the poetry collections that he published in his lifetime?
It's a list of the still in print Black Sparrow Press poetry collections issued during his lifetime. There are a few other Black Sparrow releases that are only available in the rare book market, such as At Terror Street and Agony Way (most of which appears in Burning in Water... or Roominghouse Madrigals), Scarlet (appears in full in Love is a Dog from Hell), In the Shadow of the Rose (appears in full in The Last Night of the Earth Poems), and Horsemeat (appears in full in War all the Time). There are also some smaller BSP releases from early on, such as The Curtains are Waving... and 2 by Bukowski and these poems appear in other collections. There are a few more that you can find in the database here by clicking on "Main Site" in the top left corner of this page. Then select "Database" from the menu at the top of the page and click on "Advanced search and lists."

Then of course, you have the early chapbooks and magazine submissions (Wormwood Review is the largest single repository of Buk poems in this format and the New York Quarterly is also important, but there are many many dozens of others). Some of these poems appear in the larger BSP collections and other do not, but we have a new book of unreleased and uncollected material coming out in just a couple of weeks thanks to cirerita: https://bukowskiforum.com/threads/n...-for-the-living-and-the-dead-fall-2017.11803/
 
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Thanks for your detailed reply Purple Stickpin. Thanks.

I guess I'll buy up the books mjp mentioned. I've already ordered two books from eBay, and the rest are available from Amazon (UK) at a reasonable price.

It would be great if there were a publication, official or unofficial, of all the poems, published in his lifetime, that aren't included in that list.

I don't mind paying for Bukowski's work; however, there comes a point when it's more trouble that it ought to be to hunt down the last few poems.
 
It would be great if there were a publication, official or unofficial, of all the poems, published in his lifetime, that aren't included in that list.
That would be an impossible task, officially or unofficially. Well, not impossible theoretically, but in reality.

To put such a thing together you'd have to hunt down and buy a couple thousand magazines, some (most) of which are not exactly easy to find. Then you'd have to untangle what has and hasn't been collected (which, as an added bonus, would involve untangling what has and hasn't been altered).

Is it doable? Yes. Will it ever be done? No.
 
Then you'd have to untangle what has and hasn't been collected (which, as an added bonus, would involve untangling what has and hasn't been altered).
Not to mention the titles of seemingly identical but not identical and seemingly unrelated yet related variants. I know that you've done some of this, but even what you've done (I wonder if you've even gotten to 30-40% of the variants, but appreciate every effort) is terribly confusing and fraught with 1 hour Martinizing. The rest is a swirling rage of hard to deal with.

Point being, get what you can get from '69-'91 and cool yer heels for another dose very soon.
 
would be great if there were a one-click "boxset" of all the poetry collections he published in his lifetime
well, there once HAD been a "one-click-offer" of his available poetry-collections from his lifetime (and No posthumous ones) plus most of the collected prose and some secondary-literature (all for 388,- EUR) at the bukowski-shop:

roni-books.jpg

Alas, the offer is gone. But then: you may ride cheaper at amazon.uk anyways (if you're living in the uk, that is).
 

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