3.51 AVERAGE

medium-paced

i think i could get over the way he talks about women if he wrote more cohesively a lot of the poems just seem thrown together and if you’ve read one poem of his about sex and women you’ve essentially read all of them however there are some poems in this collection that i think are meaningful 

I'm revisiting this some of the poems are cunt<3

This is the first serious book of poetry I've consumed, and it was tough. I loved "Ham on Rye", but the Bukowski here who lusts after teenage girls is a little less appealing. Through-lines emerge of loneliness, resignation, and self-sabotage in the marsh of love, always with the glint of some other disastrous affair around the corner.
dark emotional slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: N/A
Strong character development: N/A
Loveable characters: N/A
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

“Love is kind of like when you see a fog in the morning when you wake up before the sun comes out. It’s just a little while, and then it burns away… Love is a fog that burns with the first daylight of reality.”

I finished reading "Love is a dog from hell" weeks ago and it's still fermenting like a fine Port wine.
This collection of Poems from the '70s depicts the author's experiences about Love, heartbreaks, loss, women, society and all the struggling experiences that an individual faces upon. A dog, in this case, represents all the raw emotions and crazy adventures that we perceive as love. The tribulations of life are like flames, we try to run but we can't escape them. It's all this and much more that Bukowski shares to the reader...

The Crunch
"too much
too little

too fat
too thin
or nobody.

laughter or
tears

haters
lovers

strangers with faces like
the backs of
thumb tacks

armies running through
streets of blood
waving winebottles
bayoneting and fucking
virgins.

an old guy in a cheap room
with a photograph of M. Monroe.

there is a loneliness in this world so great
that you can see it in the slow movement of
the hands of a clock

people so tired
mutilated
either by love or no love.

people just are not good to each other
one on one.

the rich are not good to the rich
the poor are not good to the poor.

we are afraid.

our educational system tells us
that we can all be
big-ass winners.

it hasn't told us
about the gutters
or the suicides.

or the terror of one person
aching in one place
alone

untouched
unspoken to

watering a plant.

people are not good to each other.
people are not good to each other.
people are not good to each other.

I suppose they never will be.
I don't ask them to be.

but sometimes I think about
it.

the beads will swing
the clouds will cloud
and the killer will behead the child
like taking a bite out of an ice cream cone.

too much
too little

too fat
too thin
or nobody

more haters than lovers.

people are not good to each other.
perhaps if they were
our deaths would not be so sad.

meanwhile I look at young girls
stems
flowers of chance.

there must be a way.

surely there must be a way that we have not yet
though of.

who put this brain inside of me?

it cries
it demands
it says that there is a chance.

it will not say
"no."
dark emotional funny medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: N/A
Strong character development: N/A
Loveable characters: N/A
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

the poems are rather filthy. very stream-of-consciousness, very "this is my life, i have a lot of sex, i objectify a lot of women, i'm basically a pedophile, if don't like, don't read."

he's from the 70's, his poetry didn't age well, some of his lines are extremely problematic, etc. etc.

i was in a poetry mood and i picked his collection up because i got it for $1.27 second-hand. if i'd purposefully begun reading to see the point of view of a misogynistic drunkard going through his mid-life crisis, then i would've gotten what i came for. his point of view is gritty and uncomfortable.

i'm really conflicted. is it possible to separate the writer from his writing? even if his opinions are explicitly incorporated in his writing?

does it matter what the author truly did or think? why is the reception different when it's only a character (that the author doesn't condone) who has a problematic point of view and not the author themselves? wouldn't the knowledge gained still be the same?

1 star because stylistically, the poems are rather lazy. there's a rare few lines that are nice tho.

"do you realize/that if I were an adding machine/I might break down/tabulating"
funny tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No

puisi bukowski terasa apa adanya. sering kali dia menyebut angka-angka. hal remeh-temeh dalam realita. kecenderungan ini yg membuatnya gagal dalam membedakan cinta dan senggama.
dangkal, terbelakang.
primitif.
too much testosteron and lack of vasopressin.
oh demi tuhan?????
kalo dia ni bikin novel trus karakter utamanya mokondo macem ni, gue kek bisa aja bacanya (mencoba menelisik pikiean male manipulAtoRRR) tapi ini puisi 300+ halaman??????
hhHHHHhhhhhh

gue bisa ngerti kenapa ada orang yg suka bukowski. tapi cara dia nulis puisi ni not really my cup of tea. ditambah konten puisi dia ni berulang2 cerita ttg cewe (in a BAD way), mabok, sange, nulis, dikejar deadline, ngentot, beer, coli, ngintipin celana dalem cewe, traveling buat ngewe, dipuja(?) cewe, mabok lagi, ereksi lagi. beuhhhhhhh real mokondo sastra

kek??? dari 100++ puisi yg gue bilang oke cuma 8 :)

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: N/A
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Charles Bukowski is insufferable.

this is my first time reading Bukowski, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. He can be rude, and sometimes filthy but there is something about his writing that just hooks you. it's sad and kind of depressing.. raw and relatable. There are some real gems in there. It's a great read!