MEET MICHAEL MADSEN ... BUKOWSKI-ESQUE POET

Most of us know thesp Michael Madsen from his character work in such films as "Sin City," "Donnie Brasco" and "Reservoir Dogs." How many of you knew that the tough guy actor was also a poet.

Yes... A poet who has already published several poetry collections.

Madsen has been writing poetry for over 10 years and began his writing on match books, napkins and hotel stationery in between his time working on movie sets and traveling around the world.

In 2005, 13 Hands Publications, founded by Michael P. Naughton, compiled all of his poetry and released "The Complete Poetic Works of Michael Madsen, Vol I: 1995-2005." The book has been an international success and is the only authorized compilation of Madsen's poetry. The original books released were "Beer, Blood and Ashes" (1995), "Eat The Worm" (1995), "Burning in Paradise" (1998), and the now out of print "A Blessing of the Hounds" (2002), "46 Down; A Book of Dreams and Other Ramblings" (2004) and "When Pets Kill" (2005).

Madsen's friend and fellow actor Dennis Hopper described his poetry as a throwback to the Beat Generation: "I like him better than Kerouac: raunchier, more poignant, he's got street language, images I can relate to, blows my mind with his drifts of gut-wrenching riffs; this actor is a poet and he is cool, of course, he is Michael Madsen." Madsen notes his influences for his style of poetry as being Jack Kerouac and Charles Bukowski. His latest book of poetry, entitled "American Badass," was released in 2009 and he dedicated the book to the memory of his friend and "Kill Bill" co-star David Carradine.

On April 2, he made an appearance at Triden Booksellers in Boston, MA, to sign copies of "American Badass." Slash film was fortunate enough to sit down with him to chat about his career and offered some interesting tidbits about his poetry as well as his work with director Quentin Tarantino.

Also check out what he has to say about Bukowski...