Invisible City No. 1 -- Special Bukowski Section with 10 Poems, 5 Uncollected: Invisible City No. 1, February 1971

I don’t like collecting newspapers like the weeklies Bukowski appeared in. People say I’m crazy, but I think they’re bulky, smelly, and unwieldy – especially one the size of this, which measures 12" x 17".

Bigger ain’t necessarily better, but in this case it is.

Published in February 1971, Invisible City No. 1 featured a centerfold of Bukowski poems titled, “TEN POEMS”. Five of these poems are first appearances and the other five remain uncollected to this day.

Published in Los Angeles by Paul Vangelisti and John McBride, Invisible City was one of the most important poetry reviews in post-beat LA.

The final thing I hate about newsprint publications is grading them, but this one is fairly straight-forward. There’s heavy creasing on the top and bottom of the pages – because who has enough room to store these things except Uncle Dick with his Life Magazine collection. The good things is that paper used is quite thick, so there’s no tears, even at the folds. And the quality of the paper resulted in it still being nice and bright. The overall production is quite good. I’m grading Very Good ++, but well worth owning.

The poems include:

5 Men In Black Passing My Window

Ah

Here

Rolled Again

Songs Of Death

Style

The Bums At Phillipe's

The Last Days Of The Suicide Kid

You Might As Well Kiss Your Ass Goodbye

Zoo

Here, Rolled Again, Songs Of Death, Style and Zoo have not been collected in any books to date. NOTE: The poem Style is not the same one we all know and love.

5 Men In Black Passing My Window later appeared in Mockingbird Wish Me Luck (1972).

Ah and You Might As Well Kiss Your Ass Goodbye later appeared in The People Look Like Flowers At Last (2007).

The Bums At Phillipe's later appeared in What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk Through The Fire (1999).

The Last Days Of The Suicide Kid later appeared in Mockingbird Wish Me Luck (1972), Run With the Hunted (1993), The Pleasures of the Damned (2007), and Essential Bukowski: Poetry (2016), as well as five recordings.

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