Essential Bukowski: Poetry

Well, the headline isn't from Bukowski, but that's the line that came to mind upon reading this man's poetry! Inspired by his "Roll the Dice" poem recited very well on YouTube, I bought this book. The book itself is beautiful in terms of font and ease of reading. But this Bukowski guy...wow...We've all seen the likes of him on street corners: alcoholic, cigarette breath, unshaven, unkempt, barely surviving in the sewers of society. And yet, this "loser" has no shortage of girlfriends and whores to keep him company (Go figure!), no shortage of smokes, no shortage of alcohol, and no money for the rent. Late to work, can't keep a job, basically, a dreg of society. Clearly NOT the hard-working accountant, to be sure! But he captures nihilism extremely well, peoples' sad endings, societal values we'd rather not acknowledge or admit to. I'm glad I read the book, but the question now is, "What am I going to do with it?" Do I save it, or do I get rid of it? I'm still trying to decide!

Well, now I have a book to recommend for people who haven't yet picked up a book of Bukowski's poetry. Start here - it's a nice collection of poems and includes many of my favorites. After you read this, you'll be able to find your way through the rest of his poetry.

This is the treasure. What I can say more? When I started to reading in English, now I can truly enjoy this kind art. He is little bit similar than me, he is also who tells how I live is just what living is. Life is now, you can enjoy what it is just now, become nothing. People sometimes say I am very simple person, but I seeing what life is just now is it, life. Beautiful masterpiece. Thank You Charles Bukowski!

I would not recommend this book at all. I had read a few of his poems and was interested in getting a book of his poems as an introduction hence the purchase but the only thing essential about it is avoiding the purchase.

I was exposed to Bukowski - blame my Pinterest use (mostly for art references) - in that way a YouTube recommendation works. Utterly random. I'm ecstatic I was, and this book is a perfection addition to my poetry shelf.

read a lot of Bukowski but this is an odd collection. cannot discern the selection criteria or editing rationale.

If you are a Bukowski fan, or a reader, or a writer, or a human who's lost their context and viewpoint. READ THIS EDITION.

What can I say? It wasn't pretty. But, bukowski wasn't pretty. He was gritty, just like his words. He didn't want everything unicorn and rainbows, he wanted you to feel something.

Beautiful book. Rather limited collection in terms of sheer number of poems compared to other collections.But some rare stuff in here and really beautiful cover, which is really why I was buying it, somewhat shamefully...

Brilliant!!!!!

Great poems! Bukowski is always amazing!

I have most of his books .This is a perfect book for beginners, starting out with Bukowski, it has a good selection of his best work , thou his best work is too much to fit into a single book. I ordered it as a birthday gift for a friend ..... but ended up never giving it to her and kept it for myself :))

Que decepción del empaquetado, no tenía para protegerse ni nada, obviamente se dañó mucho , es un libro hermoso y por no empacarlo bien esta muy dañado. No es justo que pague uno tanto por el libro y no tengan la decencia de mandarlo bien.