On the night that I open my first MFA rejection letter, Charles Bukowski appears in the corner of my college apartment in stained khakis and a yellowed white undershirt, swirling Jim Beam in a lowball glass... The Poet Confronts Bukowski's Ghost is Kat Giordano's debut full-length poetry collection. "This book is full of cutting truths and visceral honesty, softened by the same hand that sharpened it. It's rare to find a poet who is able to so effortlessly infuse comedy and humor into serious, heart-breaking poetry, but you find that in The Poet Confronts Bukowski's Ghost. Kat's vulnerability and openness feels almost effortless, and will make everyone who reads this collection want to be braver." -- Caitlyn Siehl, author of Crybaby "Kat Giordano's work reads like the human body after a crime of passion. And you look up and realize what you have done and the poems are over and you are sitting in a pool of blood. Or is it your own tears? You will feel a wetness and a hurt, like you did not want it to be over and then it was." -- Heather Bell, author of A Horse Made of Fire "Kat Giordano is a fearless poet of and for our troubled times. The voices in her poems struggle a lot. There's anxiety and self-doubt. There's Poet Man and MeToo and the lie of Bob Ross's fluffy evergreens - fake beauty that can lull a person into believing the world is prettier and more promising than it is. These are poems filled with speakers who know the fight for their artistic and literal survival -- however impossible it seems -- is their only option. . . What a fresh and edged voice this is. A fierce debut." -- Lori Jakiela, author of Belief Is Its Own Kind of Truth, Maybe

Poems inspired by (and many about) Charles Bukowski. A touching tribute to Buk that captures the self-inflicted madness of the poet in all of us. Topics include loss and pain, hope and struggle, from childhood to beyond the grave. Includes 120 sad, funny, shocking poems like "Death March to the Food Bank," "This Dusty Soul," and "Bukowski's Ghost." SAMPLE POEM: "ANOTHER WASTED NIGHT" I am drunk on regret, on knowing I'll never be good enough. This diner is old, comforting, like my mother's hands. I slide into a booth and order fries wanting to taste love, wanting to taste anything but what I feel right now.

Charles Bukowski was one of America's best-known writers and one of its most influential and imitated poets. Although he published over 45 books of poetry, hundreds of his poems were kept by him and his publisher for posthumous publication, This is the first collection of these unique poems.

One of the most recognizable poets of the last century, Charles Bukowski is simultaneously a common man and an icon of urban depravity. He uses strong, blunt language to describe life as he lives it, and through it all charts the mutations of morality in modern America. Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way is a treasure trove of confessional poetry written towards then end of Bukowski’s life. With the overhang of failing health and waning fame, he reflects on his travels, his gambling and drinking, working, not working, sex and love, eating, cats, and more. Sifting Through is Bukowski at his most meditative – published posthumously, it’s completely non-performative, and gets to the heart of Bukowski’s lifelong pursuit of natural language and raw honesty. We recommend you read this as Bukowski wrote: by sifting through the madness for what hits you as the word, the line, the way.

These 189 posthumously published new poems take us deeper into the raw, wild vein of Bukowski's that extends from the early 1980s up to the time of his death in 1994.

Sharp and moving reflections and ruminations on the artistry and craft of writing from one of our most iconoclastic, riveting, and celebrated masters. Charles Bukowski’s stories, poems, and novels have left an enduring mark on our culture. In this collection of correspondence—letters to publishers, editors, friends, and fellow writers—the writer shares his insights on the art of creation. On Writing reveals an artist brutally frank about the drudgery of work and canny and uncompromising about the absurdities of life—and of art. It illuminates the hard-edged, complex humanity of a true American legend and counterculture icon—the “laureate of American lowlife” (Time)—who stoically recorded society’s downtrodden and depraved. It exposes an artist grounded in the visceral, whose work reverberates with his central ideal: “Don't try.” Piercing, poignant, and often hilarious, On Writing is filled not only with memorable lines but also with Bukowski’s trademark toughness, leavened with moments of grace, pathos, and intimacy.

The second of five new books of unpublished poems from the late, great, Charles Bukowski, America's most imitated and influential poet –– 143 never–before–seen works of gritty, amusing, and inspiring verse.