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The Charles Bukowski poem “the tragedy of the leaves” is the first poem appearing in the collection Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame. I’ve always been a fan of Bukowski’s early poetry, with books like The Roominghouse Madrigals, Mockingbird Wish Me Luck and Burning in Water… being among some of my favorite collections.
So here is a favorite poem in a favorite Charles Bukowski poetry book. The melancholy feeling is typical of Bukowski’s early works. The themes are also common to his work: woman gone, bottles present but also drained, no longer of any use to him. The mention of his promise, which seems to have come to nothing, and the final stanza makes for a tragic poem, offset by what we now know Bukowski’s life would become. That is, to say, a success, however unlikely it might have seemed that the story could end this way in times like the ones represented here.
the tragedy of the leaves, by Charles Bukowski
I awakened to dryness and the ferns were dead,
the potted plants yellow as corn;
my woman was gone
and the empty bottles like bled corpses
surrounded me with their uselessness;
the sun was still good, though,
and my landlady’s note cracked in fine and
undemanding yellowness; what was needed now
was a good comedian, ancient style, a jester
with jokes upon absurd pain; pain is absurd
because it exists, nothing more;
I shaved carefully with an old razor
the man who had once been young and
said to have genius; but
that’s the tragedy of the leaves,
the dead ferns, the dead plants;
and I walked into a dark hall
where the landlady stood
execrating and final,
sending me to hell,
waving her fat, sweaty arms
and screaming
screaming for rent
because the world had failed us
both.
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Didn’t this poem first appear
in It Catches My Heart in its Hand (1963) ??
I believe it was the opening poem in
the Loujon Press (new orleans).
The BSP reprinted the poem.
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