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• Unpublished Works: A treasure trove for longtime fans and new readers alike, featuring poems written in his final years that have never before seen the light of day.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