Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame: Selected Poems 1955-1973

“The Walt Whitman of Los Angeles.”—Joyce Carol Oates, bestselling author

“He brought everybody down to earth, even the angels.”—Leonard Cohen, songwriter

Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame is poetry full of gambling, drinking and women. Charles Bukowski writes realistically about the seedy underbelly of life.

The poems in the first three sections of this book were published in three volumes: It Catches My Heart in its Hands, Crucifix in a Deathhand and At Terror Street and Agony Way.

Charles B...