The Pleasures of the Damned
Poems, 1951–1993
Charles Bukowski
Edited by John Martin
Contents
the mockingbird
something’s knocking at the door
his wife, the painter
on the sidewalk and in the sun
the elephants of Vietnam
dark night poem
the last days of the suicide kid
tabby cat
metamorphosis
a poem is a city
a smile to remember
a free 25-page booklet
they, all of them, know
a future congressman
eulogy
the drowning
fooling Marie (the poem)
the young man on the bus stop bench
for they had things to say
silly damned thing anyhow
upon reading an interview with a best-selling novelist in our metropolitan daily newspaper
harbor freeway south
schoolyards of forever
in the lobby
sex
a clean, well-lighted place
something for the touts, the nuns, the grocery clerks and you…
blue beads and bones
like a cherry seed in the throat
turnabout
mystery leg
the girl outside the supermarket
it is not much
2 Outside, As Bones Break in My Kitchen
The Japanese Wife
the harder you try
the lady in red
the shower
i was glad
the angel who pushed his wheelchair
a time to remember
the wrong way
no wonder
a threat to my immortality
my telephone
Carson McCullers
Mongolian coasts shining in light
putrefaction
where was Jane?
something about a woman
Sunday lunch at the Holy Mission
trashcan lives
school days
grass
crucifix in a deathhand
the screw-game
millionaires
when you wait for the dawn to crawl through the screen like a burglar to take your life away
the talkers
art
advice for some young man in the year 2064 A.D
ice for the eagles
girl in a mini skirt reading the Bible outside my window
hell is a lonely place
the girls and the birds
1813–1883
no leaders, please
song
one for Sherwood Anderson
bow wow love
the day the epileptic spoke
in a neighborhood of murder
the strangest sight you ever did see—
the 2nd novel
junk
Mademoi selle from Armentières
now
society should realize…
the souls of dead animals
the tragedy of the leaves
the birds
the loner
The Genius of the Crowd
German bar
the snow of Italy
for Jane: with all the love I had, which was not enough
notice
for Jane
eulogy to a hell of a dame
barfly
was Li Po wrong?
the night I saw George Raft in Vegas
I am eaten by butterflies
the veryest
man mowing the lawn across the way from me
oh, yes
poop
Phillipe’s 1950
downtown
elephants in the zoo
girl on the escalator
the shit shits
big time loser
commerce
come on in!
the bakers of 1935
secret laughter
Democracy
an empire of coins
what?
the American Flag Shirt
now she’s free
the simple truth
gold in your eye
a great writer
the smoking car
the shoelace
self-inflicted wounds
Verdi
the young lady who lives in Canoga Park
life of the king
my failure
a boy and his dog
liberated woman and liberated man
small talk
the crunch
fun house
the poetry reading
somebody
the colored birds
poem for personnel managers
my fate
my atomic stockpile
Bruckner (2)
hello, how are you?
vacancy
batting slump
bang bang
the pleasures of the damned
one more good one
the little girls hissed
ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha
thoughts from a stone bench in Venice
scene in a tent outside the cotton fields of Bakersfield
3:16 and one half…
a literary discussion
butterflies
the great escape
my friend William
safe
starve, go mad, or kill yourself
the beautiful lady
my life as a sitcom
who needs it?
riots
those marvelous lunches
The Look
the big one
the genius
about the PEN conference
what a man I was
Scarlet
like a flower in the rain
a killer
prayer in bad weather
melancholia
eat your heart out
I made a mistake
she comes from somewhere
The High-Rise of the New World
car wash
Van Gogh
the railroad yard
the girls at the green hotel
in other words
Destroying Beauty
peace
afternoons into night
we ain’t got no money, honey, but we got rain
marina
Trollius and trellises
beagle
coffee and babies
magical mystery tour
the last generation
about competition
a radio with guts
the egg
a killer gets ready
in the center of the action
poetry
notes upon the flaxen aspect
the fisherman
the 1930s
the burning of the dream
sit and endure
Goldfish
finish
dreaming
my special craving
A Love Poem
one writer’s funeral
the wine of forever
the pile-up
my big night on the town
close encounters of another kind
drying out
scene from 1940
the area of pause
I know you
relentless as the tarantula
the replacements
to lean back into it
eating my senior citizen’s dinner at the Sizzler
it’s strange
The Beast
woman on the street
lost in San Pedro
Manx
the history of a tough motherfucker
bad fix
one for the old boy
my cats
Death Wants More Death
the lisp
on being 20
meanwhile
the world’s greatest loser
human nature
the trash men
a gold pocket watch
talking to my mailbox…
I liked him
one for the shoeshine man
the proud thin dying
shot of red-eye
about pain
hot
who in the hell is Tom Jones?
the price
I’m in love
the girls
the ladies of summer
to night
shoes
hug the dark
face of a political candidate on a street billboard
white dog
on going out to get the mail
spring swan
how is your heart?
closing time
racetrack parking lot at the end of the day
there
Dinosauria, we
mind and heart
TB
crime does pay
the orderly
the nurses
cancer
first poem back
tired in the afterdusk
again
so now?
blue
a summation
sun coming down
twilight musings
my last winter
like a dolphin
the bluebird
if we take—
alphabetical index of poem titles
About the Author
Other Books by Charles Bukowski
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
the mockingbird
the mockingbird had been following the cat
all summer
mocking mocking mocking
teasing and cocksure;
the cat crawled under rockers on porches
tail flashing
and said something angry to the mockingbird
which I didn’t understand.
yesterday the cat walked calmly up the driveway
with the mockingbird alive in its mouth,
wings fanned, beautiful wings fanned and flopping,
feathers parted like a woman’s legs,
and the bird was no longer mocking,
it was asking, it was praying
but the cat
striding down through centuries
would not listen.