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.