Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way

by Bukowski, Charles

• ISBN13: 9780060568238
• ISBN10: 0060568232
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-02-04
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

from "neither Shakespeare nor Mickey Spillane"young young young, only wanting the Word, going mad in the streets and in the bars, brutal fights, broken glass, crazy women screaming in your cheap room, you a familiar guest at the drunk tank, North Avenue 21, Lincoln Heightssifting through the madness for the Word, the line the way, hoping for a check from somewhere, dreaming of a letter from a great editor: "Chinaski, you don't know how long we've been waiting for you!"no chance at all.

Table of Contents

So you want to be a writer?	p. 3
My secret life	p. 6
The column	p. 16
Commerce	p. 18
The Mexican fighters	p. 22
This dog	p. 25
The great escape	p. 28
A quick one	p. 30
The old anarchist	p. 32
And I still won't vote	p. 33
Just trying to do a good deed	p. 35
One step removed	p. 38
My life as a sitcom	p. 39
A mechanical Lazarus	p. 41
My god	p. 45
After the sandstorm	p. 46
Carry on!	p. 48
Straw hats	p. 53
Drink and wait	p. 56
Basking in the evil light	p. 57
What can I do?	p. 63
Out of the sickroom and into the white blazing sun	p. 64
Temporal ease	p. 66
You never liked me	p. 68
Our big day at the movies	p. 71
About competition	p. 75
Fingernails	p. 76
Iron	p. 80
Extraterrestrial visitor	p. 85
Small talk	p. 86
Too sweet	p. 89
Work-fuck problems	p. 91
Observations on music	p. 94
Fly boy	p. 96
Unblinking grief	p. 101
Houses and dark streets	p. 102
The joke is on the sun	p. 105
Like a polluted river flowing	p. 109
Girlfriends	p. 111
Escape 1942	p. 113
A strange horse poem	p. 115
The longest snake in the world	p. 119
The niceties	p. 124
Time to water the plants and feed the cat	p. 127
I'm flattered	p. 129
Neither Shakespeare nor Mickey Spillane	p. 132
Show business	p. 135
Pop!	p. 137
The interview	p. 138
Re-union	p. 140
Genius unfettered	p. 141
Bob	p. 145
Bearclaw morning	p. 147
Death and transfiguration	p. 152
Warriors in this place	p. 153
A sickness?	p. 155
A fine night	p. 162
Riots	p. 165
Venice Beach	p. 166
The con job	p. 167
Looking back	p. 169
The love poems of Catullus	p. 177
Dream girl	p. 179
Empties	p. 181
The landlady	p. 186
About the mail	p. 188
Have you ever pulled a lion's tail?	p. 191
Who needs it?	p. 193
Tight black pants	p. 194
The weirdest day	p. 195
Burning bright	p. 201
The death of a hero	p. 202
Hooked	p. 204
Found poems	p. 206
Runaway inflation	p. 208
The significance was obscure	p. 210
Cracking the odds	p. 211
Working through it all	p. 216
Giving thanks	p. 217
Los Angeles	p. 224
2,294	p. 225
Why do you write so many poems about death?	p. 226
Evidence	p. 228
A wise ass	p. 231
The dressmaker	p. 234
Lunch in Beverly Hills	p. 237
She was really mad	p. 239
A tree, a road, a toad	p. 240
In one ear and out the other	p. 242
Excuses	p. 244
Bygone days	p. 245
In a lady's bedroom	p. 248
Model friend	p. 250
The invitation	p. 257
Hollywood hustle	p. 258
Buddha Chinaski says	p. 259
Like Lazarus	p. 262
Soft and fat like summer roses	p. 269
In transit	p. 271
"Dear Mr. Chinaski"	p. 274
Silverfish	p. 275
The popularity kid	p. 277
Death and white glue	p. 280
Fun times: 1930	p. 282
My bully	p. 284
Ow ow ow	p. 288
The singers	p. 290
The march	p. 292
The way things are	p. 295
Words for you	p. 296
Strictly bullshit	p. 298
Written before I got one	p. 300
Straight on	p. 302
Remember this	p. 304
Now see here	p. 306
Little poem	p. 308
Gertrude up the stairway, 1943	p. 311
Where was I?	p. 313
Sloppy day	p. 317
Note on the telephone	p. 325
At the edge	p. 328
Heads without faces, seen in all the places	p. 330
Coming awake	p. 332
The simple truth	p. 334
Here and now	p. 336
Crazy world	p. 341
Good stuff	p. 342
Respite	p. 346
The horse player	p. 348
Displaced	p. 350
In search of a hero	p. 352
Escapade	p. 358
Burning, burning	p. 359
Upon reading an interview with a best-selling novelist	p. 361
Nothing to it	p. 362
This place	p. 364
A.D. 701-762	p. 366
Regrets of a sort	p. 368
Too young	p. 371
Listening to the radio at 1:35 a.m	p. 373
Unclassical symphony	p. 374
Dinner for free	p. 375
A song from the 70's	p. 379
.188	p. 380
War some of the time	p. 382
At last	p. 383
Misbegotten paradise	p. 386
My big night on the town	p. 390
Nobody but you	p. 393
Like a dolphin	p. 395
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