Play the Piano

“The Walt Whitman of Los Angeles.”—Joyce Carol Oates, bestselling author

“He brought everybody down to earth, even the angels.”—Leonard Cohen, songwriter

Play the Piano introduces Charles Bukowski's poetry from the 1970s. He leads a life full of gambling and booze but also finds love. These poems are full of lechery and romance as he struggles to mature.

No apologies. No punches pulled.

• Confessional Poetry: Unflinching poems that stare into the mirror at a life of cheap rooms, hard drinking, and harder women.
• Gritty Realism: From the slaughterhouse to the racetrack bar, Bukowski finds the ugly, brutal truth of the everyday.
• Tender and Vicious: A world of bitter arguments and drunken nights, where moments of unexpected love and romance still manage to break through.
• A Singular Voice: The iconic, plain-spoken style that made Charles Bukowski one of the most imitated poets in American literature.

Play the Piano introduces Charles Bukowski's poetry from the 1970s. He leads a life full of gambling and booze but also finds love. These poems are full of lechery and romance as he struggles to mature.