cat with great style

V

VanessaS.

hey there. there is a poem in burning in water, drowning in flame that has a line about his cat having "great style". can anyone point me in the right direction?
 
roni

roni

the poem could be 'style' - but the version in 'Mockingbird' (Not 'Burning'!) is a shorter version and doesn't have the requested lines saying:

"I've seen dogs with more style than men.
Although not many dogs have style.
Cats have it with abundance."
 
poptop

poptop

There is no occurrence of the phrase "great style" with reference to a "cat" in Burning..., this after doing a word search of the entire book, though there are a number of references to cats. Bukowski uses the word "style" only twice and separate from any references to cats or a cat, sorry.
 
Father Luke

Father Luke

Founding member
Page 96 - the night torn mad with footsteps:
my cat, the writer

other than that, may i suggest you obtain
a copy of burning and look?

Not to be rude, but what is keeping you from
reading the specific book you target?

Sorry if I seem out of line.
 
V

VanessaS.

thanks poptop.

hmmmmm. i thought for sure it was in burning in water, drowing in flame. now im back at square one.



father luke, you are a bit rude.

i have looked in the book and havent found it.
it's just one of those things i remember reading, but can not find again.
i figured this forum was a fine place to ask.
 
poptop

poptop

After looking over many of his cat poems all at once, and his references to them, he seems to have identified with them greatly, so there are a great number of these poems out there... cats crouching, squalling cats, dead cats, smashed cats, stylish cats, sleeping cats, etc. - you name it... Father Luke is a fine writer himself, so he likes people to perhaps get the full enjoyment of the Bukowski oeuvre and maybe pushes them to find out more on their own if possible, and I think that's all he meant... Not that you're one of them, but this forum gets a lotta requests from lazy readers and not much to go on. Anyway, good luck with your cat search.
 
james

james

father luke is a scholar and a gentleman and i wholeheartedly vouch for him.
vanessa, maybe you should go to the "new blood" section of the forum and introduce yourself before asking people to look things up for you...just a suggestion :)
 
V

VanessaS.

my goodness. i really had no idea that it would be such a problem for me to ask for assistance in a forum that's designated for just that.

i dont spend enough time on the internet, so i probably dont have all the proper "etiquette". thank god for that.

my co-worker and i, who were discussing the poem in question, would like to thank poptop for letting us know that we were looking in the wrong place for the poem.
 
poptop

poptop

the history of a tough motherfucker [from War All the Time]

came across this and thought it was revealing of why Bukowski
'bonded' with cats the way he did. I think we can all relate...

....

I took the cat back, it was a hot summer, one of the
hottest in decades, I put him on the bathroom
floor, gave him water and pills, he wouldn't eat, he
wouldn't touch the water, I dipped my finger into it
and wet his mouth and I talked to him, I didn't go any-
where, I put in a lot of bathroom time and talked to
him and gently touched him and he looked back at
me with those pale blue crossed eyes and as the days went
by he made his first move
dragging himself forward by his front legs
(the rear ones wouldn't work)
he made it to the litter box
crawled over and in,
it was like the trumpet of possible victory
blowing in that bathroom and into the city, I
related to that cat---I'd had it bad, not that
bad but bad enough ...
....
Click to expand...
 
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