Richard Siken vs. Charles Bukowski
Side-by-side comparison of two thinkers
Richard Siken
1967 – present
Richard Siken is an American poet, painter, and filmmaker. He is best known for his poetry collection Crush, which won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition in 2004. His subsequent collections include War of the Foxes (2015) and I Do Know Some Things (2025), the latter of which was a finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry.
"You’re in a car with a beautiful boy, and he won’t tell you that he loves you, but he loves you. And you feel like you’ve done something terrible, like robbed a…"
Charles Bukowski
1920 – 1994
Henry Charles Bukowski was a German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambience of his adopted home city of Los Angeles. Bukowski's work addresses the ordinary lives of poor Americans, the act of writing, alcohol, relationships with women, and the drudgery of work.
"I loved you like a man loves a woman he never touches, only writes to, keeps little photographs of."