The Last Night of the Earth Poems
The late collection where many of these poems first appeared.
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On Cats
The first of Abel Debritto's thematic gatherings: every poem and passage Bukowski wrote about cats, in 128 pages.
- 2015
- Wry
- Melancholy
- Exuberant
- autobiographical
- voice-driven
- funny
- intimate
About Charles Bukowski
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeOn Cats, published by Ecco in December 2015 and edited by Abel Debritto, collects Charles Bukowski's poems and prose about cats. It runs 128 pages and was the first of four thematic volumes Debritto assembled from across the whole body of work — poetry, letters, journals and prose excerpts sorted by subject rather than by date. Cats are not a minor subject in Bukowski. He kept several and wrote about them steadily through his last two decades, in a register he rarely used for anything else — plain affection, without the joke at the end. The book is what happens when that material is pulled out of forty years of books and put in one place.
The story, in more detail
The thematic volumes work because Bukowski returned to the same subjects for fifty years, which means a single theme can be followed across a whole career. Reading the cat poems in sequence shows the tone changing while the subject holds: the early ones watch the animals, the late ones treat them as company.
Themes and analysis
The cat has other ideas
The opening prose turns a failed animal trick into a comedy about approval. The narrator wants to impress the editor who rejects his stories; the cat will not supply the evidence of his special rapport. When the editor tries, occasional cooperation encourages him to claim mastery, but further commands also fail. Repetition exposes the narrator’s and the editor’s need to turn an unpredictable animal into a flattering audience. The cat does not explain itself, and its indifference punctures the human performances that fill the room.
The yellow cat by the fire escape
In “the cat,” repeated visits connect a hotel room, a lonely woman and the animal waiting below. After the woman’s death, the speaker dismisses sadness but cannot repeat his former affectionate encounter with the cat. Its changed feel and expression can be read as grief altering perception, rather than proof that a different animal has appeared. His rough rejection breaks the earlier routine. The poem refuses the expectation that an animal’s presence will automatically console: loss unsettles even the contact that once seemed easiest.
Why we recommend it
A whole career on one subject
Fifty years of poems and prose about cats, pulled out of forty books and read in sequence.
The gentlest door in
At 128 pages and with nothing to defend, it is the easiest Bukowski to hand to someone who thinks they would not like him.
Animals observed in daily life
The focused subject allows readers to attend to Bukowski’s descriptions of particular habits and companionship rather than only his public persona.
What this book explores
Timeline
1970s–1993
The span of the cat poems the volume draws on.
2015
Ecco publishes On Cats, the second of Debritto's thematic volumes that year.
2016
Ecco publishes the paperback edition of the cat anthology.
Book editions
- Hardcover
- Ecco
- 2015
- 9780062395993
- Paperback
- Ecco
- 2016
- 9780062651433
Reader reviews
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You Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense
The 1986 collection in which cats and childhood are the two standing subjects.
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On Cats: frequently asked questions
What is On Cats?
A collection of Charles Bukowski's poems and prose about cats, published by Ecco in 2015 and edited by Abel Debritto. It runs 128 pages.
Did Bukowski really write a lot about cats?
Yes. He kept several and wrote about them steadily through his last two decades — often enough that a whole book can be made from it.
Is this a good first Bukowski book?
It is the easiest one to start with. Short, warm by his standards, and free of the material that puts new readers off.
How many thematic volumes are there?
Four, all edited by Abel Debritto: On Writing and On Cats in 2015, On Love in 2016, and On Drinking in 2019.
Where do the poems come from?
From across the whole career — the volumes sort existing poetry and prose by subject rather than printing new material.
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References
References
The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document On Cats, its publication, and its place in literary history.
1On Cats
PoetryCharles Bukowski, 2015Used forThe primary text represented by this page, used for descriptions of the work’s contents and for any quoted passages shown here.
2Charles Bukowski timeline (bukowski.net)
WebsiteUsed forPublication year, editor and edition details.
3Charles Bukowski
BiographyReaktion Books, 2012Used forCareer context for the material the volume draws on.
4Charles Bukowski (Poetry Foundation)
WebsiteUsed forThe poetry and prose the selection is made from.
5Charles Bukowski: books and chapbooks (Verdant Press checklist)
WebsiteUsed forBibliographic details checked against the checklist.
6On Cats — publisher extract, pp. 1–11
PoetryCanongate (sample distributed by Waterstones), 2015Used forPrimary text included as part of the documented record for On Cats.
i
Why these sources are here
The primary text is the baseline reference for every book page. Additional references document publication history, interpretation, and historical context where that evidence is available.
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