contemporary literature, one, poem by Charles Bukowski

contemporary literature, one (excerpt)
by Charles Bukowski

…I saw some newspapers
on the floor
I was out of writing
paper
had long ago hocked 
my typewriter
I noticed that 
each page of the
newspaper had a wide white
margin around the 
edge
I had a pencil
stub
I picked up a 
newspaper and with
the pencil stub
I began to write words 
on the edge
sitting in the doorway
freezing in the moonlight
so that I could
see 
I wrote in pencil 
on all the edges 
of all the newspapers 
in that shack…

Illustration: “Charles Bukowski” by Jeremy Hara (ALL RIGHTS RESERVED). If you aren’t familiar with Jeremy Hara’s ouevre, he draws on U.S. currency — and has created clever portraits of iconic figures in American arts and letters, including Andy Warhol, R. Crumb, Kurt Vonnegut, and Mark Twain. For more about Jeremy Hara, visit his blog.

Note: Find “contemporary literature, one” in Charles Bukowski‘s Dangling in the Tournefortia (1981), a collection of poetry he dedicated to his writing idol John Fante.