The day Bukowski died (1 Viewer)

A good one, DiB!

about the poems... John Bennett says:
"they electrified me, they set me dancing about my garret room so that my four-year-old son broke into laughter and began dancing with me, they clarified and verified what remained of my childhood perceptions that I was desperately and intuitively trying to hang on to (the good, the pure, the accurate and preconception-free small child perceptions that get pounded out of existence in most of us at an early age)."

reading this was so good that now I am running out of this room to paint like a fool. :agb:
 
My best friend at the time called me and told me over the phone. I was surprised at how serious he was as if he wanted to take it easy on me. It was night time. I was stunned and I didn't know how to react. We talked about Buk for a while and then hung up. It wasn't until later that it started to creep up on me and then I started to realize what a total tragedy it was. That weekend I got good and drunk while re-reading the few books I had. It was then that I went on a multi year reading binge on Buk and developed a deep love for him.
 
I was in my first Buk reading/collecting phase and wasn't shocked because I knew he had been ill, but was really saddened. I went to see Red a couple days later and shot the shit for awhile. I was 28, and Bukowski is someone I actually still think about daily, 23 years later. I think I bought a couple of L.A. Times for his obit.
 
I was so sure, we did have a thread re Hank's Day of Death, but couldn't find it via search-engine. So, I'm creating one, since today's the day again.

Though I seem to remember, I've posted these 4 Original Historic news from March 10, 1994 on German TV before, it may be appropriate to have them (again?) starting this thread:


EDIT:
I've just found the existing thread. It's here: https://bukowskiforum.com/threads/the-day-bukowski-died.4506/
Maybe the mods want to delete (or include) this post now.
 
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Thanks for the link.
Ah Dammit! It's up there already. My non-capability to remember things.

Anyway, what's not up there is me visiting the grave in 2007:

2007_Roni_Bukowski-Grab_2.jpg
 
The day I heard Buk had died I got a small brown envelope from him in the post. There was no letter from him inside. But there was a typed poem - SO NOW. I had been meaning to reply to a letter he had sent a while before. I'd typed it out - put it in an envelope but hadn't gotten around to posting it. Still have it. I knew he was ill but not quite as ill as he actually was. He never dwelt on his illness in his notes to me. Almost carried on as normal. The comments from his neighbours in the letter above are consistent with how he was with me, courteous, kind and mellow even. The comment about him being different after illness, glad to be alive, is probably very true. Glad to have had a little contact with him in his later years.
 

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