Early Original Typescript: Fly-Song by Charles Bukowski

This is a very early typescript of Charles Bukowski poem that should probably be in a university archive. Titled, Fly-Song, the poem has never been published.

Although it is not dated, the address on the poem is 1623 N. Mariposa Ave. in Los Angeles. Bukowski moved to this address after his divorce from his first wife Barbara Frye in 1958. During his time there he slept on a Murphy bed that folded up into a wall and wrote on a small metal typewriter table. He would stay there until May 1964 when his girlfriend Frances Smith became pregnant and the two moved to his famous DeLongpre Ave. address.

It's important to note that Bukowski didn’t sign his submissions at this point, nor did he make carbons of these poems. He referenced this method of submission in a letter published in the March 1960 issue of TRACE magazine.

“Anyone can be an editor, but not everyone should be. The least these fly-by-nighters could do is return submissions You list them in TRACE, and we send – many of us not egotistical enough to keep carbons. How cold can a man or woman be, simply to wastebasket poetry sent in good faith, with return postage and envelope? And it is not an ordinary occurrence, it is a continuous one.”

Because he was such a prolific writer, Bukowski was probably not exaggerating when he later claimed that hundreds of his poems were lost forever during those years.

Fortunately, Fly-Song was not lost, although it probably went missing for decades. I received the manuscript from a gentleman who claimed he purchased a large box (contents unknown) during the liquidation of a bookstore in Miami many years ago. That’s all I know about the history of the manuscript.

The poem describes a typical morning at 1623 N. Mariposa Ave. A man in room 29 is dying of cancer, he uses the john (probably shared), shaves, combs his hair and hears the sound of teapots. He references Citation, one of horse racing’s greatest performers. According to The Sport:

“Citation won 19 of 20 races in 1948. He won at every distance, won at 10 different tracks, and won in seven different states travelling the countryside in dusty trucks and sweltering rail cars. He won his races by a total of 66 lengths, and swept the Triple Crown races by a total of 17 lengths. The victories in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes were all part of his 16-race win streak.”

He was the first horse to earn over $1 million in  earnings and it’s quite possible Bukowski saw him perform.

This is a very early manuscript of which there were no carbons, making this the only original copy of the poem in existence.

The manuscript is in excellent condition with some light toning and and a tiny tear on one of the two folds.

It comes in a beautiful custom box created by Gibbs Bookbinding of Los Angeles.

Crate 4