Charles Bukowski - Terms for Poetry Reading (1971 Letter) lyrics

Hello Mr pini:

I rec your letter from
Springfield via Penguin today
All right i am available for a
Poetry reading but don’t know if you have
The stakes it would take round-trip air
(which I imagine would be a great
Deal from LA to Florida)
Plus $200 somebody to meet
Me at the airport and take me back there
Also if I arrive a day early
Someplace to stay that
Night, and if there’s a
Party after the reading
(one of those beer-drinking talking
Things) then a place to stay that night i
Don’t know about your funds auden gets
2, 000 a reading, Ginsberg 1
000 so you see I’m cheap a real
Whore and maybe not too
Famous a whore? Anyhow
That’s it if you can swing it
The sooner the better miller
Williams of the U of Arkansas says there is a
Standing offer of $300 for me to read there
So
I could stop off there on the way if I can
Hook you for plane fare it would make the
Trip worthwhile i promise not to
Be overly intoxicated at
The reading i quit my job at age 50
I’m 51 now and have been more or
Less on the literary hustle that’s
Why I talk money like a pool
Sharp it’s all survival forgive me

Anyhow, let me know what you think
Yes or no…whatever

I enclose an advertisement for myself…my
First novel…wrote it in 20
Nights if you’re interested you
Can also get my latest book of poems
The days run away like wild
HORSES OVER THE HILLS, same
Press, same address
$4 i don’t have any extra copies of either

I’m working on my 2nd novel now, THE POET
But I’m taking my time they say it’s 101
Degrees today fine then, I’m drinking coffee
And rolling cigarettes and looking out at
The hot baked street and
A lady just walked by wiggling
It in tight white pants
And we are not dead yet

Hang in, Charles Bukowski
5124 DeLongpre Ave los Angeles, Calif 90027

NO-I6385