Confession Poem by Charles Bukowski

Confession

Rating: 3.5


waiting for death
like a cat
that will jump on the
bed

I am so very sorry for
my wife

she will see this
stiff
white
body
shake it once, then
maybe
again

"Hank!"

Hank won't
answer.

it's not my death that
worries me, it's my wife
left with this
pile of
nothing.

I want to
let her know
though
that all the nights
sleeping
beside her

even the useless
arguments
were things
ever splendid

and the hard
words
I ever feared to
say
can now be
said:

I love
you.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Jonny Brackney 15 December 2011

Yes, there is a kindness stored away in Bukowski. As he reveals in his poem 'Bluebird' which is my favorite poem from him.

15 4 Reply
Susan Williams 16 April 2016

He is probably the most head-on gritty truth-bearing unapologetic writer I have ever had the privilege to read. His world is a harsh world of abusive fathers, abusive husbands, abusive mothers, abusive wives- -he gives no one a gender pass. Perhaps the narrator really did love the woman- perhaps his definition of love is sorely deficient. Well-worth reading, pondering, arguing over.

15 1 Reply
Irena Markovic 03 July 2012

Just... brilliant...

12 3 Reply
Nomi Mas 08 February 2008

from the heart. the best confession afterall

12 2 Reply
Francie Lynch 16 April 2016

Trite and simple. A cat waiting to pound on a bed is a poor image of death.

2 6 Reply
Mahlubandile Phillips 25 July 2023

Words of the heart

0 0 Reply
Kumarmani Mahakul 06 July 2018

A poem on love nicely executed. Touching expression.

1 0 Reply
Jazib Kamalvi 29 March 2017

A good start. Carry on. Thanks

0 0 Reply
Maakomele Manaka 28 March 2017

there's a deep sense of self realization in the underlying tone of this poem, layered beneath the simple style of writing. The second last stanza is the essence of the poem. There's an explosion of revelation happing in those few line. Its that of an old man breaking chains from his past, and liberarating himself, and essentially confessing to how much his past had made him live in fear of being loved. And now at this stage in his life, he wishe he had said i love you. Bukowski has mastered tone. The last two lines of the poem, so unexpected, so simple, yet in context to the poem, they are explosive. The reader forgets how cliched and over used i love you is. It's a beautiful poem.

5 1 Reply
Jozef Neumann 16 August 2016

Yeah. It's good it's been said though we never know whether it's too late

0 0 Reply
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