"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- Unpublished Works: A treasure trove for longtime fans and new readers alike, featuring poems written in his final years that have never before seen the light of day.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.