SOURCE: "Gab Poetry, or Duck vs. Nightingale Music: Charles Bukowski," in Where the Bee Sucks: Workers, Drones, and Queens in Contemporary American Poetry, Asylum Arts, 1994, pp. 56–66.

In the essay below, Peters detects a "deterioration" in Bukowski's poetry, but nevertheless celebrates his originality and earthiness.

I once witnessed a Charles Bukowski first: the debut of the great raunchy poet as actor. The vehicle, "The Tenant," was a two character drama written by Linda King. Bukowski contributed lines of his own, better developing his own image in the play. This line was his addition, as delivered by Miss King: "You may be the greatest poet of the century, but you sure can't fuck." In a lively way "The Tenant" turns upon the problem of whether a super-poet should move in with his girlfriend, who would then, one would suppose, buy him his beer, give him bj's, and let him abuse...