The Continual Condition: Poems

“The Walt Whitman of Los Angeles.”

—Joyce Carol Oates

“He brought everybody down to earth, even the angels.”

—Leonard Cohen, songwriter

Arguably the most imitated and influential American poet of the previous half-century, Charles Bukowski remains a counter-culture icon more than a decade after his death. The Continual Condition is a collection of never-before-published poems by the inimitable Bukowski—raw, tough, odes to alcohol, women, work, and despair by a rebel author equally adept at poetry and prose. Charles Bukowski lives on in The Continual Condition, a godsend for admirers of his previous collections Slouching Toward Nirvana, The Pleasures of the Damned, and Love is a Dog From Hell, as well as his novels Factotum, Ham on Rye, and Pulp.

This final collection delivers the raw, uncut Bukowski experience:

• Dirty Realism: Unflinching poems that find the profound in the profane—from racetrack bars and dead-end jobs to the strange, savage beauty of a city that never sleeps.
• The Barfly Poet Laureate: Searing, personal odes to alcohol, women, and the Sisyphean struggle of the artist, all told with Bukowski’s signature blend of weary cynicism and dark humor.
• Unpublished Works: A treasure trove for longtime fans and new readers alike, featuring poems written in his final years that have never before seen the light of day.
• Counterculture Voice: The raw, unapologetic spirit that made him an icon, cutting through the noise with brutal honesty and a middle finger to convention.

In the literary pantheon, Charles Bukowski remains a counterculture luminary. A hard-drinking wild man of literature and a stubborn outsider to the poetry world, he has struck a chord with generations of readers, writing raw, tough poetry about booze, work, and women in an authentic voice that is, like the work of the Beats, iconoclastic and even dangerous.

Edited by his longtime publisher, John Martin, of Black Sparrow Press, and now in paperback, The Continual Condition includes more ofthis legend’s never-before-collected poems.

“Charles Bukowski was a Titan—an artist who almost single handedly made the life of the poet—once again—a viable and even noble venture. Millions of people who might otherwise never have read a word of poetry were awakened to the possibilities and sheer power of the written word by his works. That his books remain among the most frequently shoplifted in the history of bookselling speaks well of his continuing appeal—a fact I’m sure would have pleased him. ” - Anthony Bourdain

“Charles Bukowski is the Walt Whitman of Los Angeles.” - Joyce Carol Oates

“Bukowski’s strength is in the sheer bulk of his contents, the virulent anecdotal sprawl, the melodic spleen without the fetor of the parlor or the classroom, as if he were writing while straddling a cement wall or sitting on a bar stool, the seat of which is made of thorns.” - New York Times Book Review

“Before I read Bukowski (I was eighteen years old at the time) I thought writing was bullshit. Bukowski changed my life. He gave me permission to be honest and he taught me that it’s OK to write about yourself as long as you always remember that the reader doesn’t actually care about you. The reader is doing you a favor and you have to give something back. Those years I read everything Bukowski ever wrote—poems, stories, novels, essays. He was the first artist to have any effect on me. He made me want to be a writer and for that I’ll never forgive him.” - Stephen Elliott

“A prolific poet . . . a popular, accessible, and yes, great artist.” - Washington Post Book World