who is the gloomy lady?

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:

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
 
I would say no, based on

she's had two or
three of her slim
volumes of poems
done in mimeo.


and

I could have had
her once.


He wrote a few poems about a "sad lady up North" that was definitely not Frye.
 
Yeah, not all of his poems about women are about women he actually met or had relationships with. He would receive a lot of letters from men and women who were writers, aspiring or otherwise, and this poem seems to be about one such woman with whom the increasingly well known Bukowski would probably have corresponded briefly in the mid seventies.
 
Most of Bukowski's women were also writers. Especially Linda King, who he was dating at about that time.

Still, I think that I know who this poem is about and it is not about Barbara.

Bill
 
Thanks.

Not sure about B., but it's not uncommon to create composite characters for poems. She may be several women in one- but that doesn't seem like his style, so far as I've read.
 
Yes, Buk reckoned there was nothing worse than too late, yet...

I have to say I believe The Gloomy Lady is/was Ann Menebroker (née Bauman).
She fits the description, especially:

she's had two or
three of her slim
volumes of poems
done in mimeo.


and

I could have had
her once
.
 
I have to say I believe The Gloomy Lady is/was Ann Menebroker (née Bauman).
She fits the description...]

I agree. Difficult to think who else it could be? since there are a few specific references in the poem that point to it being Ann Menebroker I think.
How many married, female poets with children from "up there" whom "he could have had once" did he know?

Selected Letters Vol 2 1965 - 1970: The letter Bukowski writes to Carl Weissner - Jan 28 1967
About the woman from Sacremento who writes poetry and whom he has been told is a "looker".

Sounes, Howard (1999-10-16). Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life (Kindle Locations 2035-2038). Canongate Books. Kindle Edition.
Bukowski found Ann very attractive and said he knew she was married with children, up in Sacramento, but he wanted her to come and live with him in LA. He needed her; she was the first woman for a long time he had felt comfortable with. But she turned him down. ‘There was a very strong pull, but I couldn’t do that,’ she says. ‘I had a normal sane life where I was.’
 

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