Free Kindle version of BUKOWSKI ANTHOLOGY (4/20-4/24/2020)

In honor of National Poetry Month, from Monday, April 20 through Friday, April 24, 2020, the Silver Birch Press BUKOWSKI ANTHOLOGY  is available for FREE in a Kindle version. Find the Kindle version here.

This 272-page collection features poetry and prose about Charles Bukowski as well as portraits of the author by over 75 writers and artists around the world. Contributors include people who knew Bukowski — friends, fellow poets, and people he met along the way — as well as those who feel as if they knew the iconic author.

Cover Art: Mark Erickson and Katy Zartl (ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)

Contributing Editors: Jocelyne Desforges, S.A. Griffin, Suzanne Lummis, David Roskos, Joan Jobe Smith, Eddie Woods

Contributors (in alphabetical order): Christopher R. Adams / Sheril Antonio / RD Armstrong / The Art Warriors (Antonio Gamboa) / David Barker / William Barker / Black Sifichi / Harry Calhoun / David Stephen Calonne / Jared A. Carnie / Neeli Cherkovski/ Kim Cooper / Abel Debritto / Henry Denander / Jocelyne Desforges / Rene Diedrich / John Dorsey / Mark Erickson / Dan Fante / Paul Fericano / Karen Finley / Jack Foley / FrancEyE / Ed Galing / Joan Gannij / Anggo Genorga / Marjorie Gilbert / Jeffrey Graessley / S.A. Griffin / win harms / Donna Hilbert / Rodger Jacobs / Linda King / Harvey Kubernik/ Dana Laina / Lautir (Fabrizio Cassetta) / Suzuki Limbu / Michael Limnios / Gerald Locklin / Suzanne Lummis / Marvin Malone / Adrian Manning / Dean Marais / Germa Marquez / Catfish McDaris / Ann Menebroker / Heather Minette / Austin Mitchell / Richard Modiano / Jon Monday / Jeff Morgan / Paul Nebenzahl / Gerald Nicosia / Michael O’Brien / bart plantenga / David S. Pointer / Alvaro Pozo / D.A. Pratt / Wendy Rainey / Steve Richmond / David Roskos / Russ Runfola / Richard Schave / Raymond King Shurtz / Joan Jobe Smith / Ben Talbot / Mark Terrill / dirk velvet / Melanie Villines / Fred Voss / Scott Wannberg / Vanessa Wilken / A.D. Winans / Bradley Wind / Erik Woltersdorf / Pamela “Cupcakes” Wood / Tim Youd / Katy Zartl

Enjoy!

fame, poem by Charles Bukowski

fame
by Charles Bukowski 

some want it, I don’t want it, I
want to do whatever it is I do
and just do it.
I don’t want to look into the
adulating eye,
shake the sweating
palm.
I think that whatever I do
is my business.
I do it because if I don’t
I’m finished.
I’m selfish:
I do it for myself
to save what is left of
myself.
and when I am
approached as
hero or
half-god or
guru
I refuse to accept
that.
I don’t want their
congratulations,
their worship
their companionship.
 
I may have half-a-
million readers,
a million,
two million.
I don’t care.
I write the word
how I have to write it.
 
and, in the
beginning,
when there were no
readers
I wrote the word
as I needed to write the
word
and if all
the half-million,
the million,
the two million,
disappear
I will continue to
write the
word
as I always have.
 
the reader is an
afterthought,
the placenta,
an accident,
and any writer who
believes otherwise
is a bigger fool than
his
following.

SOURCE: “fame” appears in Open All Night: New Poems (Black Sparrow Press, 2002), available at Amazon.com.

Portrait of Charles Bukowski by Jeff Morgan, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This image and other portraits of Charles Bukowski by Jeff Morgan appear in the Silver Birch Press BUKOWSKI ANTHOLOGY, available at Amazon.com.

breathing bukowski, poem by dirk velvet

breathing bukowski
by dirk velvet

he used the smallest words
he could find
to
tell his
tales
 
he knew that
the large ones
could get
stuck
going in
 
and
 
never
come
out
 
he knew
what we all
needed
to live
 
 
to
breathe
 
in
and
out

SOURCE: “breathing bukowski” by dirk velvet appears in the Silver Birch Press Bukowski Anthology, available at Amazon.com.

IMAGE: “Charles Bukowski” by Christopher R. Adams, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Old Man in the Rain, poem by Michael O’Brien

OLD MAN IN THE RAIN
by Michael O’Brien

Got a copy of Bukowski
from the library.
 
Nice, hard
cover edition; nicer than any of the ones
I’d ever shelled out cash
for.
 
Just noticed that the red dye
from the binding
has bled out a bit
onto the inside
of the dust jacket.
 
Makes me imagine that somebody
along the line
was reading in the rain.
 
Not bad, old
man,
not bad.
 
Still there for us
when we got no place
to hide.

SOURCE: “Old Man in the Rain” by Michael O’Brien appears in appears in the Silver Birch Press Bukowski Anthology – a collection of poetry, short stories, essays, interviews, photography, and art from authors and artists around the world — available at Amazon.com.

ART: “Charles Bukowski portrait, 1994″ by RinaldoZoontjes

The Old Master, poem by Adrian Manning

THE OLD MASTER
by Adrian Manning

I sit at my old typer, at a desk
in my  room.
above me is a shelf full of books
by a writer called Bukowski.
I read the titles and think to myself
if I could only come up with one line
like one of those titles
I could really have something.
there are many books and magazines,
I have not counted them,
and there are possibly more poems in them
than an army of men could produce
and they are mostly very good and
if not very good they are good.
I wish the words were like bees
humming around my head in a storm
of vibrant movement. I could possibly
catch some of them and nail them down
with a Bukowski book.
he sits in a photo, on one shelf,
in his later years, the hard work behind him,
one arm resting on his chair, the other
raised to the temple of his head
and he looks thoroughly unimpressed.
he’s telling me, work it boy, gotta keep going,
you’re nowhere near yet.
I look up at the photo
and tell him you’re right,
you son of a bitch,
you were always right.

SOURCE: “The Old Master” and other poetry about Charles Bukowski by Adrian Manning appears in the Silver Birch Press Bukowski Anthology – a collection of poetry, short stories, essays, interviews, photography, and art from authors and artists around the world — available at Amazon.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Adrian Manning writes from Leicester, England. His poetry and articles have appeared in numerous chapbooks, magazines and on-line sites around the world. He is also the editor of Concrete Meat Press and a massive fan and collector of works by Charles Bukowski.

Cover art: Mark Erickson and Birgit Zartl

Bukowski Anthology World Tour 2014

At the literary event at Bar Bukowski in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, on January 20, 2014, Bukowski Anthology contributor bart plantenga read his story “Contemplating Charles Bukowski” (cowritten with Black Sifichi) from the collection. Here is an excerpt…

Contemplating Charles Bukowski (Excerpt)

by bart plantenga & Black Sifichi 

A lot of questions were rolling around in Bukowski’s head as he entered the Palomino Bar & Grill. The guy next to him ordered up another Salty Dog. Bukowski got a beer. Bukowski thought maybe he’d like to kiss a woman named “Babine.” A French woman’d be perfect, he figured. Dyed apricot hair, a collar around her neck. In fact, it just HAD to happen because Bukowski had recently learned the power of the will. The responsibility of Dreams!

He ordered another beer & listened to the jukebox. The new juke, he was sure, had been installed to mock him & maybe force him to find a new hole to get soused in. The songs were just too happy—like Valentines from a planet he’d never been to. The gold brocade, the sombreros & lacquered maracas were meant to attract a new clientele. A clientele bereft of soul who needed dining dioramas like some needed dialysis machines…
***
Read  ”Contemplating Charles Bukowski” in its entirety in the Silver Birch Press Bukowski Anthology – a 272-page collection of poetry, prose, art, and photography from over 70 contributors around the world – available at Amazon.com.

Bukowski Anthology featured at Bar Bukowski in Amsterdam

We are honored that Silver Birch Press Bukowski Anthology contributing editor Eddie Woods read poetry by win harms and Mark Terrill from the Silver Birch Press Bukowski Anthology at Bar Bukowski (barbukowski.nl) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, on January 20, 2014. Woods also read from his memoir Tennessee Williams in Bangkok (Inkblot Publications, 2013). Along with Eddie Woods, the literary event featured poets Sabina Lukovic, Aaron Mick, Pim Oudheusden, bart plantenga, Max Urai, Jibbe Willems, and — in her poetry performance debut — Hannah Woods.

Here’s one of the poems featured during the reading…

FEELING LIKE BUKOWSKI

 by win harms

feeling like bukowski

here i am a lone lunatic

looking over the street

and evoking the men

i’ve known biblically

they were cads and

i put them out like

cigarettes in the ashtray

i am playing my music too

loud, the phone refuses to

 ring, i think about

opening a beer but don’t

realizing it’s ten am

i light candles for

my salvation

and listen to the

wind through the trees

what a sad song they play

today i want to fly away

and forget where I was

last night

“Feeling Like Bukowski” by win harms – plus poetry, prose, and art by over 70 contributors — appears in the Silver Birch Press Bukowski Anthology (August 2013), available at Amazon.com.

Photo of Eddie Woods by Bas Geerdink, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Bukowski Anthology: Price Reduced at Amazon

For a limited time, the Silver Birch Press Bukowski Anthology is selling for $10.28 on Amazon.com (reduced from $15) and on Amazon.co.uk for £8.79 (also reflects a price reduction). The book also appears on Amazon sites in: Canada, France, Germany,India, Italy, Japan, and  Spain, 

The 272-page collection features poetry and prose about Charles Bukowski as well as portraits of the author by over 75 writers and artists around the world. Contributors include people who knew Bukowski — friends, fellow poets, and people he met along the way — as well as those who feel as if they knew Buk.

(Cover art by Mark Erickson and Birgit Zartl)

Call for Submissions: Haikus or Tweets About Charles Bukowski

Since we frequently feature the work of Charles Bukowski and recently published the Silver Birch Press Bukowski Anthology, we’re assuming that many visitors to our blog are fans of Charles Bukowski — and we’d like to know more about your Buk love. So we’re issuing a call for submissions…

• Write a haiku to Hank or a 140-character (or less) Hank tweet — and we’ll post our favorite entries on this blog or on our related blog: Bukowski On Wry.
• All entrants will receive a collector’s postcard commemorating the Silver Birch PressBukowski Anthology (August 2013).
• Honorable mentions will receive a postcard and a refrigerator magnet.
• Top three will receive postcard, refrigerator magnet, and a copy of the Silver Birch Press Bukowski Anthology, a 272-page collection of poetry & prose about Charles Bukowski as well as portraits of the author from over 75 writers and artists around the world.
• Email your submissions to bukowskionwry@yahoo.com or tweet to #SilverBirchPres

Prizes (postcards, refrigerator magnets, and book) feature a beautiful Bukowski portrait by Mark Erickson (markerickson.com) and Katy Zartl (birgitzartl.com).

Please feel free to repost, reblog, or retweet this call for Bukowski haiku/tweet submissions.

Thank you to S.A. Griffin, Joan Jobe Smith, and Fred Voss

Thank you to S.A. Griffin, Joan Jobe Smith, and Fred Voss for reading their poetry as well as other selections from the Silver Birch Press Bukowski Anthology at the launch event on Sept. 22nd at Skylight Books in Los Angeles. Despite the Emmy Awards taking place nearby in Hollywood, we attracted an enthusiastic crowd of Bukowski fans and a good time was had by all!

Thanks, too, to Richard Schave of the Los Angeles Visionaries Association (LAVA) for telling us about the Esotouric Bukowski tour. Find out more at esotouric.com. (And read our post about the terrific tour at this link.)

And, finally, thank you to Jessica Wilson who tried to live stream the event — but,  for various reasons, the best laid plans often go astray (as they say). Our apologies to all those who tried to tune in. The good news is that Jessica recorded the audio and will post it soon — link to come (we hope — but we live in hope…).

We thank Skylight Books for hosting the event — and appreciate the bookstore’s efforts on behalf of Silver Birch Press.

Photos: S.A. Griffin, Joan Jobe Smith, Fred Voss