Poet, novelist, postman and celebrated drunk, Charles Bukowsi would be turning 90 on August 16th, except he died in 1994. Still, the Poet laureate of Skid Row will be fêted from coast to coast. The birthday events celebrating the German-born author range from readings and film screenings at the terrific Sky Light Books in LA on Saturday the 14th to a memorial caberet concert by German chanteuse Ute Lemper on the 19th at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater in NYC.

Poem For My 43rd Birthday

To end up alone

In a tomb of a room

without cigarettes

or wine—

just a lightbulb

and a potbelly

grayhaired,

and glad to have

the room.

Charles Bukowski