Charles Bukowski

Charles Bukowski (1920 - 1994)

Charles Bukowski (August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994), American poet and novelist, was born in Andernach, Germany and moved to Los Angeles, California three years later. He lived there much of his life.

He acknowledged Anton Chekhov, Ernest Hemingway, John Fante, Louis-Ferdinand Céline and others as influences on his writing, and was also knowledgeable about classical music. He was extremely prolific, publishing over 40 books of poetry and prose between 1960 and the early 1990s.

One critic described Bukowski’s fiction as a “detailed depiction of a certain taboo male fantasy: the uninhibited bachelor, slobby, anti-social, and utterly free.”

Bukowski spent much of his life among the denizens of Hollywood’s underbelly, and he was a long-term functional alcoholic. One of his poems describes his enjoyment of having a medical checkup at which he found that his drinking had had no perceptible effect on his health.

The film Barfly, starring Mickey Rourke, was based on his life, the main character being his alter-ego, Henry Chinaski. His novel Hollywood was based on the tribulations of making this film.

A documentary called Bukowski: Born Into This was released in American theaters on July 9, 2004, generally to good reviews. Actor Sean Penn and singer Bono, friends and fans of Bukowski, appear in the film.

An adaptation of Bukowski’s second novel, Factotum, will be filmed starting in April 2004 in Minnesota.

Poems By Charles Bukowski

Miscellaneous

16-bit Intel 8088 chip (1 Comment »)
40,000 (1 Comment »)
8 Count (4 Comments »)
A Challenge To The Dark (1 Comment »)
A Following (1 Comment »)
A Man (2 Comments »)
A Radio With Guts (1 Comment »)
An Almost Made Up Poem (2 Comments »)
And The Moon And The Stars And The World (1 Comment »)
Another Day (3 Comments »)
Are You Drinking? (No Comments »)
As The Poems Go (3 Comments »)
As The Sparrow (1 Comment »)
Be Angry At San Pedro (No Comments »)
Be Kind (No Comments »)
Big Night On The Town (No Comments »)
Bluebird (16 Comments »)
Cause And Effect (4 Comments »)
Confession (1 Comment »)
Consummation Of Grief (No Comments »)
Cows In Art Class (1 Comment »)
Curtain (No Comments »)
Death Wants More Death (No Comments »)
Decline (No Comments »)
Eat Your Heart Out (No Comments »)
Finish (2 Comments »)
Flophouse (1 Comment »)
For Jane (8 Comments »)
For Jane: With All The Love I Had, Which Was Not Enough (1 Comment »)
For The Foxes (4 Comments »)
Freedom (1 Comment »)
Friends Within The Darkness (2 Comments »)
Gamblers All (No Comments »)
Girl In A Miniskirt Reading The Bible Outside My Window (2 Comments »)
Here I Am … (2 Comments »)
His Wife, The Painter (1 Comment »)
Hot (3 Comments »)
How Is Your Heart? (1 Comment »)
I Made A Mistake (No Comments »)
I Met A Genius (3 Comments »)
I’m In Love (6 Comments »)
It’s Ours (No Comments »)
Jane Icin (For Jane – In Turkish) (4 Comments »)
Layover (1 Comment »)
Let It Enfold You (22 Comments »)
Like A Flower In The Rain (1 Comment »)
Luck (3 Comments »)
Marina (1 Comment »)
Melancholia (No Comments »)
Metamorphosis (No Comments »)
My First Affair With That Older Woman (1 Comment »)
My Groupie (No Comments »)
New Mexico (No Comments »)
Nirvana (4 Comments »)
No. 6 (No Comments »)
Now (No Comments »)
O, We Are The Outcasts (3 Comments »)
Oh Yes (2 Comments »)
On The Fire Suicides Of The Buddhists (1 Comment »)
Out Of The Arm Of One Love… (No Comments »)
Poem For My 43rd Birthday (No Comments »)
Poetry (No Comments »)
Prayer In Bad Weather (No Comments »)
Pull A String, A Puppet Moves (No Comments »)
Question And Answer (No Comments »)
Rain (No Comments »)
Rain Or Shine (No Comments »)
Raw With Love (1 Comment »)
Revolt In The Ranks (No Comments »)
Rhyming Poem (5 Comments »)
Shoes (3 Comments »)
Short Order (2 Comments »)
Sleep (No Comments »)
So Now? (No Comments »)
Some People (1 Comment »)
Somebody (17 Comments »)
The Aliens (No Comments »)
The Blackbirds Are Rough Today (2 Comments »)
The Genius Of The Crowd (20 Comments »)
The History Of One Tough Motherfucker (1 Comment »)
The House (No Comments »)
The Icecream People (1 Comment »)
The Meek Shall Inherit The Earth (2 Comments »)
The Most (No Comments »)
The Most Beautiful Woman In Town (3 Comments »)
The Night I Was Going To Die (4 Comments »)
The Poetry Reading (No Comments »)
The Retreat (No Comments »)
The Shower (2 Comments »)
The Sun Weilds Mercy (No Comments »)
The Worst And The Best (1 Comment »)
These Things (1 Comment »)
This (1 Comment »)
This Then (2 Comments »)
Three Oranges (No Comments »)
To The Whore Who Took My Poems (12 Comments »)
Trapped (1 Comment »)
Trashcan Lives (No Comments »)
True (1 Comment »)
We Ain’t Got No Money, Honey, But We Got Rain (1 Comment »)
What A Writer (No Comments »)
What Can We Do? (No Comments »)
Whats The Use Of A Title? (No Comments »)
Who In The Hell Is Tom Jones? (No Comments »)
Working Out (No Comments »)
Writing (1 Comment »)
Young In New Orleans (2 Comments »)

burning in water drowning in flame

. Hooray Say The Roses (No Comments »)
. Love & Fame & Death (1 Comment »)
. Mama (2 Comments »)
. Sway With Me (1 Comment »)
. True Story (No Comments »)
. Yes Yes (7 Comments »)

Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame.

. Something For The Touts, The Nuns, The Grocery Clerks, And You . . . (2 Comments »)

Shake the Kaleidoscope

. Alone With Everybody (2 Comments »)

The Last Night of the Earth Poems

. Cut While Shaving (No Comments »)
. Show Biz (1 Comment »)

The Roominghouse Madrigals

. On Going Back To The Street After Viewing An Art Show (No Comments »)

War All the Time

. Eulogy To A Hell Of A Dame (1 Comment »)