My mother first introduced me to Richard Brautigan when I was too young and too stubborn to enjoy him. I was that “but it doesn’t rhyme” brat.
Who needs rhyming? Brautigan is my favorite poet, and I often find myself reading others and thinking “hmmm. I’d prefer Brautigan’s take on this”. Allow me to present you with one of my all-time favorites, “Nice Ass”
There is so much lost
and so much gained
in these words.
I mean, what else do you need?
I recently dug this volume out of the stacks at my favorite book pile of a store out in the wilds of Vermont, and I made myself sick in the car reading through it while my husband drove us home. I look for Brautigan every time I encounter used books. Successful finds are few and far between. I am particularly happy to come across this one, as I once had a copy when I was young and did not value rare things. I believe it was discarded during a move.
News broke a few weeks ago about Yorgos Lanthimos signing on to produce a movie of one of Brautigan’s novels. I am hopeful! I enjoyed all of his prior films, and in picking up the rights now to The Hawkline Monster it has been rescued from the overdone hands of the Tim Burton machine. You can see why Burton would have been interested, what with poems like “Cannibal Carpenter”
He wants to build you a house
out of your own bones, but
that’s where you’re living
any way!
The next time he calls
you answer the telephone with the
sound of your grandmother being
born. It was a twenty-three-hour
labor in 1894. He hangs
up.