A Challenge To The Dark

shot in the eye
shot in the brain
shot in the ass
shot like a flower in the dance

poem by Charles Bukowski
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Working Out

Van Gogh cut off his ear
gave it to a
prostitute
who flung it away in
extreme
disgust.

poem by Charles Bukowski
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

The Meek Shall Inherit The Earth

if I suffer at this
typewriter
think how I'd feel
among the lettuce-
pickers of Salinas?

poem by Charles Bukowski
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Trapped

don't undress my love
you might find a mannequin:
don't undress the mannequin
you might find
my love.

poem by Charles Bukowski
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Writing

often it is the only
thing
between you and
impossibility.
no drink,
no woman's love,
no wealth
can
match it.

poem by Charles Bukowski
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Rhyming Poem

the goldfish sing all night with guitars,
and the whores go down with the stars,
the whores go down with the stars

poem by Charles Bukowski
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

40,000

at the track today,
Father's Day,
each paid admission was
entitled to a wallet
and each contained a
little surprise.

poem by Charles Bukowski
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

So Now?

the words have come and gone,
I sit ill.
the phone rings, the cats sleep.
Linda vacuums.
I am waiting to live,
waiting to die.

poem by Charles Bukowski
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Paris

never
even in calmer times
have I ever
dreamed of
bicycling through that
city
wearing a
beret

and
Camus
always
pisse d
me
off.

poem by Charles Bukowski
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Poem For My 43rd Birthday

To end up alone
in a tomb of a room
without cigarettes
or wine--
just a lightbulb
and a potbelly,
grayhaired,
and glad to have
the room.

poem by Charles Bukowski
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!