Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
The Pleasures of the Damned
The Pleasures of the Damned: Selected Poems 1951-1993 | Charles Bukowski
The Pleasures of the Damned is a selection of the best poetry from America's most iconic and imitated poet, Charles Bukowski. Celebrating the full range of the poet's extraordinary sensibility and his uncompromising linguistic brilliance, these poems cover a lifetime of experience, from his renegade early work to never-before-collected poems penned during the final days before his death. Selected by John Martin, Bukowski's long-time editor and the publisher of the legendary Black Sparrow Press, this stands as what Martin calls 'the best of the best of Bukowski'.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
quote
TheBookHippie
post image

One of my very favorite poets, some quotes 🤍

Poetry is what happens when nothing else can.

You begin saving the world by saving one man at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics.

Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, I‘m not going to make it, but you laugh inside – remembering all the times you‘ve felt that way.

I guess the only time most people think about injustice is when it happens to them.

#poetry

slategreyskies Maybe twenty or so years ago, I was browsing the poetry section at my local library, and I picked up a Bukowski book and began flipping through it. I came across a poem so funny that I laughed out loud before remembering I was in the library and was supposed to be quiet. This was one of those loud laughs unfortunately, and the librarians weren‘t thrilled. Ha! Still, I‘ll always remember that day as the first time I laughed at poetry. Good times. 3y
TheBookHippie @slategreyskies I love that story!!!! 🤣🤣🤣✊🏼🤍🤍🤍I laugh cry yell in protest solidarity when I‘m reading him 😅 3y
See All 9 Comments
slategreyskies I think he‘d get a kick out of that sort of reaction!! 😆!! 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa Those are great quotes, I‘ll have to check out his works. 3y
Cathythoughts Great quotes 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻❤️ 3y
GingerAntics I think I‘m going to pass on this poet. 3y
TheBookHippie @GingerAntics He is NOT for everyone that‘s for sure! 🤍😅 3y
56 likes2 stack adds9 comments
quote
jveezer
post image

You‘ve been warned. 📖🤓❤️

blurb
Bookwomble
post image

I started reading this book earlier in the year, giving Bukowski his right to be himself and of his time and place, being able to appreciate his viewpoint without having to embrace it. Then I got to these lines in the poem "somebody" on which he describes raping a women he's just met in order to "be somebody" again. ????

Bookwomble The next poem, "the colored birds" concludes that the only "proper man" in the neighbourhood is the one who violently assaults his wife each night. Is there any reason I should keep reading? 6y
vivastory No. These aren't persona poems, like Ai's or Robert Browning's. He seems to be endorsing these things. 6y
Bookwomble The idea of using personas to explore issues was partly how I took the earlier poems in the book, also giving him the right to hold views different to my own and for me to gain insight from that. It's another thing for him to use his own name in a poem about rape. Whilst again it may be an insight into how the world of an abuser is constructed, it makes me feel very different about the man identifying with that. It does taint the work for me... 6y
See All 15 Comments
Bookwomble ... but I wondered whether there was something of misapprehended about what he's saying. 6y
Bookwomble Tag! 😁 👉🏼 @vivastory 6y
vivastory Bukowski is really problematic in that the legend is often mistaken for the real person, but he perpetrated the myth. It's even more problematic when a poet uses I or their name in a poem. All writing is performance & involves personas, to a certain degree; but when they write of reprehensible things without writing from a clear persona, or of moral condemnation, it seems to carry a certain amount of endorsement. Moral poetry is often bad poetry👇 6y
vivastory Which I think is why the use of a persona has been so effective to write of certain topics & explore the mindset behind it without endorsing it. Things become muddled when this distancing element is missing. 6y
Bookwomble In the poem, the woman asks "are you Charles Bukowski", he says he is and that he wants to "fuck you", she laughs thinking he's joking, he rapes her and says at the end, "I was Charles Somebody", meaning that the act of rape had made him A somebody. If this didn't happen in his real life (I hope not), it may be an honest look at ugly feelings he has, of how rape is about power and masculine identity, and the poem a catharsis... 6y
vivastory Poetry as exorcism? There's certainly a case for that, Sexton & Plath were certainly using it as such, albeit at a higher imaginative pitch (at least imho). One thing that has always bugged me about bukowski is his glib dismissal of 95% of other authors as trash. 6y
Bookwomble @vivastory [Keep forgetting tags! See above☝?] ... but then the very next poem says beating your wife makes you "a man", and the context of that poem, also, has nothing to make you think Bukowski is being ironic. I don't need a neon sign saying "I'm really condemning this, not endorsing it", but in the repeated absence of evidence to the contrary, I've formed the view he thinks rape and abuse is ok. I'm not sure I Vann compartmentalise that. 6y
vivastory Life is too short for mediocre, problematic poetry. I agree, poetry that overtly preaches is typically bad poetry, but more often than not it feels like he is dog whistling. 6y
Bookwomble @vivastory It's a shame, as I actually do like a lot of his poems, I'm just not sure I can past this and read the rest. Also, there's the annoyance and regret of having spent £16.99 of my Christmas book tokens on the Damned thing! 🤨😉 6y
vivastory That is annoying! Raymond Carver wrote a hilarious parody of Bukowski that's worth checking out. 6y
GingerAntics Wow, I will not be reading this poet then. That‘s just disturbing. 3y
Bookwomble @GingerAntics Yes, it is disturbing. I've still got the book on my shelf, but haven't been back to it again. Re-reading @vivastory 's insightful comments reinforces my disinclination to do so. 3y
12 likes15 comments
blurb
jveezer
post image

Checking out some of CB‘s poetry as the sun sinks into Catalina Island and the Pacific.

lalatiburona 🤔🤔🤔 6y
Leftcoastzen Perfect! 6y
Faibka Beautiful sunset! 6y
3 likes3 comments
blurb
PagesOfKate
post image

Happy Valentines Day! Wishing everyone a super loved-up day 💞💞
After 11 years together the #hearts still in it. However, we've taken to choosing gifts for each other that are... somewhat less romantic in nature!
#Riotgrams

Jas16 I love that mug! 6y
jpmcwisemorgan Oh I need that mug! 6y
Tamra Funny! 6y
See All 7 Comments
readordierachel Ha! Both of those are great. 6y
LeahBergen 😂😂 6y
Craftylikefox The card and mug are so great!!! 😂 6y
AmyG Great mug. 6y
81 likes1 stack add7 comments
review
Taylor
post image
Pickpick

Soulful, reckless, and provocative. The work stands...indifferent to the reader.

5 likes1 stack add
quote
Taylor
post image

you know, you were right, Robert Baun, when you once told me, "Bukowski, about half of what you say is bullshit."
✔️

quote
Taylor
post image

The horses were more real than my father
more real than God
and they could have stepped on my
feet but they didn't
they could have done all kinds of horrors
but they didn't.

I was almost 5
but I have not forgotten yet;
o my god they were strong and good
those red tongues slobbering
out of their souls.

quote
Taylor
post image

in the most decent sometimes sun
there is the softsmoke feeling from urns
and the canned sound of old battleplanes
and if you go inside and run your finger
along the window ledge you'll find
dirt, maybe even earth.

blurb
Taylor

I know it's not cool to like Bukowski but I've never read him before, started this today, and I'm finding it wonderful.

Simona I like his works and I enjoy in them. So what? I'm not cool? It does not bother me ... 7y
Taylor @Simona I didn't mean to imply anyone is uncool. I'm just saying I see Bukowski get a lot of flack in general. 7y
Simona That's true ... and I'm fine with uncool 😉 7y
7 likes3 comments
blurb
dixi_e
post image

March 13: Van Gogh - Let's debate. #Litsy365

One thing I miss more than anything about leaving behind my past life is my book club and the amazing people in it. Few people in my life now want to read and discuss. ☹️

blurb
dixi_e
post image

March 9: woman on the street - I feel like that last line is one of power. #Litsy365

blurb
dixi_e
post image

March 4: the beautiful lady - I have no idea about the intent of this poem but it's rhythm drew me and kept me going. #LitsyPoetry365

blurb
utterKATEness
post image

No better way to spend a chilly day in the Philly suburbs than with a book of #poetry and a reading buddy. #dogsoflitsy

blurb
winemom
post image

Hate won because of apathy.
Hate won because of pride.
Hate won because of ignorance.
Hate won because of laziness.
Hate won because people let it.
#hatewon #presidentialelection

quote
Liberty
post image

beware those who are always reading books

- from "Genius of the crowd" ???

Suzze I'll bet almost every Litten looked at those shelves trying to pick out titles. 7y
CocoReads Fantastic shelves. @Suzze, you're right, I did. Lol 7y
beagle.mama I did too @Suzze ! I forgot this wasn't IG for a second and even tried to zoom. @Litsy Can we zoom soon? 7y
See All 14 Comments
read_diverse_books The most accurate quote. 👌 7y
Melli Can I come visit.. lol 7y
JanuarieTimewalker13 I just realized I'm more enamored by books than by men.....I would toss Alex Skarsgard aside for a bookshelf like that...lol 7y
Bkwurm And never trust a person who has enough space on their bookshelf. 😉 7y
MyNamesParadise Books books books!! 😍😍😍 7y
ultrabookgeek This is #goals lol 7y
Beth.Pedota I predict the next stack to fall will be the right stack of books on top of the smaller bookcase. :) 7y
Graciouswarriorprincess And more books always!📚 7y
Liberty @Beth.Pedota I should start taking bets. 7y
Suzze @beagle.mama I have tried to zoom soooo many times! 7y
ferskner Beautiful. 7y
246 likes6 stack adds14 comments
blurb
smccallum
post image

Happy Birthday to Bukowski, this book made a more intense teen than was probably necessary but j enjoyed it at the time!