What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk Through the Fire

by Bukowski, Charles

• ISBN13: 9781574231052
• ISBN10: 1574231057
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-02-24
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

This second posthumous collection from Charles Bukowski takes readers deep into the raw, wild vein of writing that extends from the early 70s to the 1990s.

Table of Contents

1
my father and the bum	17	(1)
legs, hips and behind	18	(2)
igloo	20	(2)
the mice	22	(2)
my garden	24	(1)
legs and white thighs	25	(1)
Mademoiselle from Armentieres	26	(3)
my father's big-time fling	29	(2)
the bakers of 1935	31	(4)
the people	35	(1)
the pretty girl who rented rooms	36	(2)
too soon	38	(2)
canned heat?	40	(3)
Pershing Square, Los Angeles, 1939	43	(3)
scene from 1940:	46	(1)
my big moment	47	(3)
daylight saving time	50	(1)
the railroad yard	51	(1)
horseshit	52	(2)
man's best friend	54	(2)
the sensitive, young poet	56	(2)
hunger	58	(3)
the first one	61	(2)
the night I saw George Raft in Vegas	63	(2)
no title	65	(1)
too many blacks	66	(2)
white dog	68	(1)
blue beads and bones	69	(2)
ax and blade	71	(2)
some notes on Bach and Haydn	73	(3)
born to lose	76	(2)
Phillipe's 1950	78	(1)
in the lobby	79	(2)
he knows us all	81	(1)
victory!	82	(2)
more argument	84	(3)
wind the clock	87	(1)
what?	88	(1)
she comes from somewhere	89	(1)
lifedance	90	(1)
the bells	91	(2)
full moon	93	(1)
everywhere, everywhere	94	(1)
about a trip to Spain	95	(1)
Van Gogh	96	(2)
Vallejo	98	(1)
when the violets roar at the sun	99	(1)
the professionals	100	(2)
the 8 count concerto	102	(2)
an afternoon in February	104	(2)
crickets	106	(2)
the angel who pushed his wheelchair	108	(3)
the circus of death	111	(3)
the man?	114	(1)
Christmas poem to a man in jail	115	(4)
snake eyes?	119	(2)
my friends down at the corner:	121	(1)
smiling, shining, singing	122	(2)
Bruckner	124	(2)
this moment	126	(1)
one more good one	127	(6)
2
you do it while you're killing flies	133	(1)
the 12 hour night	134	(3)
plants which easily winter kills	137	(2)
the last poetry reading	139	(4)
probably so	143	(1)
assault	144	(4)
raw with love	148	(2)
wide and moving	150	(1)
demise	151	(2)
the pact	153	(2)
75 million dollars	155	(2)
butterflies	157	(2)
4 Christs	159	(3)
$180 gone	162	(2)
blue head of death	164	(2)
young men	166	(1)
the meaning of it all	167	(2)
guess who?	169	(1)
I want a mermaid	170	(2)
an unusual place	172	(2)
in this city now---	174	(3)
Captain Goodwine	177	(3)
morning love	180	(2)
an old jockey	182	(2)
hard times on Carlton Way	184	(2)
we needed him	186	(2)
Nana	188	(1)
poor Mimi	189	(3)
a boy and his dog	192	(2)
the dangerous ladies	194	(2)
sloppy love	196	(7)
winter: 44th year	203	(1)
Hollywood Ranch Market	204	(3)
rape	207	(4)
gone away	211	(2)
note left on the dresser by a lady friend:	213	(2)
legs	215	(2)
the artist	217	(2)
revolt in the ranks	219	(2)
life of the king	221	(2)
the silver mirror	223	(2)
hunchback	225	(2)
me and Capote	227	(3)
the savior: 1970	230	(3)
la femme finie	233	(1)
beast	234	(2)
artistic selfishness	236	(1)
my literary fly	237	(2)
memory	239	(2)
Carlton Way off Western Ave.	241	(2)
at the zoo	243	(1)
coke blues	244	(1)
nobody home	245	(2)
woman in the supermarket	247	(2)
fast track	249	(2)
hanging there on the wall	251	(2)
the hookers, the madmen and the doomed	253	(2)
looking for Jack	255	(2)
apprentices	257	(2)
38,000-to-one	259	(2)
a touch of steel	261	(2)
brown and solemn	263	(1)
time	264	(2)
nobody knows the trouble I've seen	266	(2)
the way it works	268	(2)
bright lights and serpents	270	(2)
mean and stingy	272	(2)
$100	274	(2)
this particular war	276	(1)
German bar	277	(1)
floor job	278	(2)
the icecream people	280	(2)
like a cherry seed in the throat	282	(3)
3
the ordinary cafe of the world	285	(2)
on shaving	287	(4)
school days	291	(2)
neither a borrower nor a lender be	293	(4)
sometimes even putting a nickel into a parking meter feels good---	297	(2)
Mahler	299	(1)
fellow countryman	300	(3)
the young man on the bus stop bench	303	(2)
computer class	305	(4)
image	309	(3)
the crunch (2)	312	(3)
I'll send you a postcard	315	(1)
bravo!	316	(2)
downtown	318	(2)
the blue pigeon	320	(1)
combat primer	321	(2)
thanks for that	323	(1)
they arrived in time	324	(2)
odd	326	(2)
an interlude	328	(2)
anonymity	330	(2)
what's it all mean?	332	(1)
one-to-five	333	(4)
insanity	337	(2)
farewell my lovely	339	(2)
comments upon my last book of poesy:	341	(2)
a correction to a lady of poesy:	343	(3)
Beethoven conducted his last symphony while totally deaf	346	(2)
on the sidewalk and in the sun	348	(2)
what do they want?	350	(2)
I hear all the latest hit tunes	352	(2)
am I the only one who suffers thus?	354	(4)
on lighting a cigar	358	(3)
the cigarette of the sun	361	(2)
to lean back into it	363	(2)
dog fight 1990	365	(2)
I used to feel sorry for Henry Miller	367	(2)
locked in	369	(3)
wasted	372	(2)
Sunday lunch at the Holy Mission	374	(1)
slaughter	375	(2)
a vote for the gentle light	377	(2)
be alone	379	(2)
I inherit	381	(3)
another day	384	(2)
tabby cat	386	(2)
the gamblers	388	(1)
the crowd	389	(2)
trouble in the night	391	(2)
3 old men at separate tables	393	(2)
the singer	395	(2)
stuck with it	397	(3)
action on the corner	400	(2)
no guru	402	(2)
in this cage some songs are born	404	(1)
my movie	405	(2)
a new war	407	(1)
roll the dice	408