You Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense

by Bukowski, Charles

• ISBN13: 9780876856833
• ISBN10: 0876856830
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-02-24
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

Charles Bukowski examines cats and his childhood in You Get So Alone at Times, a book of poetry that reveals his tender side. He delves into his youth to analyze its repercussions.

Table of Contents

1813-1883	13	(1)
red Mercedes	14	(3)
retired	17	(2)
working it out	19	(2)
beasts bounding through time-	21	(2)
trashcan lives	23	(1)
the lost generation	24	(2)
no help for that	26	(1)
my non-ambitious ambition	27	(2)
education	29	(3)
downtown L.A	32	(4)
another casualty	36	(2)
driving test	38	(2)
that's why funerals are so sad	40	(2)
cornered	42	(2)
bumming with Jane	44	(2)
darkness	46	(2)
termites of the page	48	(3)
a good time	51	(2)
the still trapeze	53	(2)
January	55	(2)
sunny side down	57	(2)
the man in the brown suit	59	(3)
a magician, gone	62	(3)
well, that's just the way it is	65	(1)
the chemistry of things	66	(4)
rift	70	(3)
my friend, the parking lot attendant	73	(2)
miracle	75	(1)
a non-urgent poem	76	(2)
my first affair with that older woman	78	(2)
the freeway life	80	(3)
the player	83	(2)
p.o. box 11946, Fresno, Calif. 93776	85	(2)
poor Al	87	(2)
for my ivy league friends:	89	(2)
helping the old	91	(1)
bad times at the 3rd and Vermont hotel	92	(2)
the Master Plan	94	(2)
garbage	96	(3)
my vanishing act	99	(2)
let's make a deal	101	(2)
16-bit Intel 8088 chip	103	(1)
zero	104	(1)
putrefaction	105	(2)
I'll take it	107	(2)
supposedly famous	109	(3)
the last shot	112	(1)
whorehouse	113	(5)
starting fast:	118	(2)
the crazy truth	120	(2)
drive through hell	122	(1)
for the concerned:	123	(1)
a funny guy	124	(1)
shoes	125	(1)
coffee	126	(2)
together	128	(3)
the finest of the breed	131	(2)
close to greatness	133	(2)
the stride	135	(2)
final story	137	(2)
friends within the darkness	139	(2)
death sat on my knee and cracked with laughter	141	(3)
oh yes	144	(1)
O tempora! O mores!	145	(2)
the passing of a great one	147	(2)
the wine of forever	149	(2)
true	151	(1)
Glenn Miller	152	(1)
Emily Bukowski	153	(2)
some suggestions	155	(2)
invasion	157	(7)
hard times	164	(3)
longshot	167	(4)
concrete	171	(4)
Gay Paree?	175	(2)
I thought the stuff tasted worse than usual	177	(2)
the blade	179	(2)
the boil	181	(2)
not listed	183	(3)
I'm not a misogynist	186	(3)
the lady in the castle	189	(6)
relentless as the tarantula	195	(2)
their night	197	(2)
huh?	199	(2)
it's funny, isn't it? #1	201	(5)
it's funny, isn't it? #2	206	(2)
the beautiful lady editor	208	(3)
about the PEN conference	211	(1)
everybody talks too much	212	(4)
me and my buddy	216	(2)
song	218	(3)
practice	221	(2)
love poem to a stripper	223	(2)
my buddy	225	(2)
Jon Edgar Webb	227	(2)
thank you	229	(2)
the magic curse	231	(2)
party's over	233	(1)
no nonsense	234	(1)
escape	235	(1)
wearing the collar	236	(1)
a cat is a cat is a cat is a cat	237	(2)
marching through Georgia	239	(1)
gone	240	(1)
I meet the famous poet	241	(6)
seize the day	247	(2)
the shrinking island	249	(2)
magic machine	251	(2)
those girls we followed home	253	(3)
fractional note	256	(2)
a following	258	(2)
a tragic meeting	260	(6)
an ordinary poem	266	(2)
from an old dog in his cups	268	(2)
let 'em go	270	(2)
trying to make it	272	(2)
the death of a splendid neighborhood	274	(3)
you get so alone at times that it just makes sense	277	(2)
a good gang, after all	279	(1)
this	280	(1)
hot	281	(1)
late late late poem	282	(2)
3 a.m. games:	284	(4)
someday I'm going to write a primer for crippled saints but meanwhile	288	(2)
help wanted	290	(1)
sticks and stones	291	(2)
working	293	(3)
over done	296	(2)
our laughter is muted by their agony	298	(1)
murder	299	(2)
what am I doing?	301	(1)
nervous people	302	(1)
working out	303	(1)
how is your heart?	304	(2)
forget it	306	(1)
quiet	307	(5)
it's ours	312

Excerpts

listening to Wagner

as outside in the dark the wind blows a cold rain the

trees wave and shake lights go

off and on the walls creak and the cats run under the

bed . . .

Wagner battles the agonies, he's emotional but

solid, he's the supreme fighter, a giant in a world of

pygmies, he takes it straight on through, he breaks

barriers

an

astonishing FORCE of sound as

everything here shakes

shivers

bends

blasts

in fierce gamble

yes, Wagner and the storm intermix with the wine as

nights like this run up my wrists and up into my head and

back down into the

gut

some men never

die

and some men never

live

but we're all alive

tonight.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from You Get So Alone at Times by Charles Bukowski Copyright © 2003 by Charles Bukowski
Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.