You Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense
The mid-1980s poems: the San Pedro years, the cats, the childhood resurfacing, and the loneliness given its full name in the title.
- 1986
- Melancholy
- Wry
- Spare
- autobiographical
- voice-driven
- intimate
- spare
About Charles Bukowski
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeYou Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense, published by Black Sparrow Press in 1986, collects Charles Bukowski's poems from the settled San Pedro years — the better house, the marriage to Linda Lee, the computer still a few years off — without the settling reaching the poems' subjects. Childhood and the violent father resurface; the cats arrive as recurring characters; the racetrack, the drinking and the dead friends hold their places. The title is the collection's whole argument: solitude not as a complaint but as a working condition, chosen and defended.
The story, in more detail
The collection sits between the desire-driven middle poetry and the openly elegiac late books. Its strongest poems look backward — at the Depression childhood, the father, the early rooming houses — with the steadiness of a man no longer inside them, and sideways at the small durable comforts of the late life: the cats, the classical music on the radio, the typewriter at night.
Themes and analysis
The story that keeps going
In “it’s funny, isn’t it? #1,” the speaker chooses his neighbor for a promising remark, then resents the predictable story that follows. The poem’s short lines stretch out his impatience, making the reader wait while he complains about waiting. Yet its own punchline arrives only after several further encounters: he finally declares the neighbor’s story inferior to the one we have just read. That turn makes his irritation competitive as well as social. He wants not merely better company but the last word about whose storytelling deserves an audience.
Behind the movie star
The accusation of disappointment moves from the storyteller to the unnamed actor, turning different guests into targets for the same performance. The actor answers physically, with a growl and a shoulder movement; the hostess neutralizes the next insult by treating it as the speaker’s familiar manner. His refusal of celebrity etiquette therefore becomes another recognizable party role. Although he initially wants to flee, he returns to his table and orders another drink. The outsider remains inside the occasion he condemns, dependent on its company for both his grievance and his poem.
Why we recommend it
The tender collection
The armor comes off further here than anywhere in the poetry: childhood, cats, dead friends, and the loneliness named in the title.
Late-life Bukowski at full strength
Settled circumstances sharpened rather than dulled the poems; the material just moved from the bars to the memory.
The past inside a settled life
Childhood memories interrupt the later domestic setting, showing why improved circumstances do not simply remove earlier injuries.
What this book explores
Timeline
1980
Bukowski moves to San Pedro, the setting and circumstance of the collection.
1986
Black Sparrow Press publishes the collection.
2007
Ecco reissues the collection in paperback.
Book editions
Paperback
- Paperback
- Black Sparrow Press
- 1986
- Paperback
- Ecco
- 2007
- 9780061542497
Reader reviews
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You Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense: frequently asked questions
What is You Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense about?
Charles Bukowski's 1986 collection gathers poems from his settled San Pedro years: the childhood and the violent father resurfacing in memory, the cats of the late life, the racetrack, dead friends, and solitude treated as a working condition rather than a complaint.
Is this a good first Bukowski poetry collection?
It works, though Love Is a Dog from Hell is the more common entry. Start here if the quieter, more inward Bukowski appeals more than the barroom one.
Why are there so many cats in the collection?
Bukowski shared the San Pedro house with a shifting population of cats and loved them without reservation — in these poems they carry the tenderness the persona withheld elsewhere.
When was the collection published?
Black Sparrow Press published it in 1986; Ecco keeps it in print.
Does the title mean Bukowski endorsed loneliness?
The title sentence describes solitude as something that eventually makes sense — the collection treats being alone as the condition his writing life required and defended, not as despair.
What is this collection about?
Two subjects dominate: Bukowski's childhood, and cats. It is one of the more tender collections of the late period, published in 1986.
Is there a signed edition?
Yes — Black Sparrow issued 126 numbered, hand-bound copies signed by Bukowski alongside the trade printing.
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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 You Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense, its publication, and its place in literary history.
1You Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense
NovelCharles Bukowski, 1986Used forThe primary text represented by this page, used for descriptions of the work’s contents and for any quoted passages shown here.
2Charles Bukowski (Poetry Foundation)
WebsiteUsed forBiographical and bibliographic backbone: the career arc, the Black Sparrow relationship, and the book's place in it.
3Charles Bukowski timeline (bukowski.net)
WebsiteUsed forPublication dates, publishers, and chronology checked against the bukowski.net timeline.
4Charles Bukowski: books and chapbooks (Verdant Press checklist)
WebsiteUsed forBibliographic details cross-checked against the Verdant Press checklist.
5You Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense — edition record
Official recordOpen Library, Internet ArchiveUsed forOfficial record used to verify names, dates, institutional details, or other factual information on this page.
6it’s funny, isn’t it? #1 — complete poem transcription
PoetryVoeticaUsed forComplete third-party transcription used for the close reading, including the ending; not a first-edition facsimile.
7You Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense — ebook preview and contents
WebsiteEcco (preview distributed by Perlego), 2009Used forAuthorized preview corroborates collection membership and the party sequence but stops before the final drink and closing comparison.
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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