There's a poem entitled gloomy lady in Love is a Dog from Hell.
It reminds me of Frye (good old grandma, bringing me all sorts of troubled thoughts). It could, however, be about another woman- it was published between 1974-77, which is quite some time after the divorce. Certain little lines here and there allow for the time gap, though, like "she has two or three children between the ages of 6 and 15." Not to mention that's the age range both of her children would have fallen in.
The poem also discusses the woman's desire to publish poetry. Did any of his other spouses/girlfriends also have poetic tendencies?
The line that really gets me is this one: "I wonder if she thinks I could have saved her?"
Which has obvious similarities with my signature line below; it's something Bukowski mentioned in reference to Frye, according to the Miles biography.
There are two small parts of the poem that wouldn't correspond well with Frye, and may be the indicator that it's someone else. I'll just write it out here, to save trouble from looking it up:
It reminds me of Frye (good old grandma, bringing me all sorts of troubled thoughts). It could, however, be about another woman- it was published between 1974-77, which is quite some time after the divorce. Certain little lines here and there allow for the time gap, though, like "she has two or three children between the ages of 6 and 15." Not to mention that's the age range both of her children would have fallen in.
The poem also discusses the woman's desire to publish poetry. Did any of his other spouses/girlfriends also have poetic tendencies?
The line that really gets me is this one: "I wonder if she thinks I could have saved her?"
Which has obvious similarities with my signature line below; it's something Bukowski mentioned in reference to Frye, according to the Miles biography.
There are two small parts of the poem that wouldn't correspond well with Frye, and may be the indicator that it's someone else. I'll just write it out here, to save trouble from looking it up:
gloomy lady
she sits up there
drinking wine
while her husband
is at work.
she puts quite
some importance
upon getting her poems published
in the little magazines.
she's had two or
three of her slim
volumes of poems
done in mimeo.
she has two or
three children
between the ages
of 6 and 15.
she is no longer
the beautiful woman
she was. she sends
photos of herself
sitting upon a rock
by the ocean
alone and damned.
I could have had
her once. I wonder
if she thinks I
could have
saved her?
in all her poems
her husband is
never mentioned.
but she does
talk about her
garden
so we know that's
there, anyhow,
and maybe she
fucks the rosebuds
and finches
before she writes
her poems