Tuesday, April 04, 2006

I'M TRYING TO WRITE LIKE BRAUTIGAN

I'm trying to write like Brautigan
I want my poems to be self-contained,
like oysters
and say big things about small events in justafewwords

I've been reading his poems
from the year when I was only about 6
and had you asked me then I might have been able
to write you a poem closer to his than I can now
perhaps because my head is too cluttered

perhaps I'm trying too hard
and my hands asterisk things for footnotes
and tangents that are not of this second*
and I stretch to far for pith
like fried potatoes

When the house was calm I sat on the shitter
reading his poetry because I like it
and because we were out of toilet paper.
It seemed a Richardish thing to do and perhaps
I could turn that into a poem I thought
but prolly not as well as he could

I'm trying to write like Brautigan
and damn, but I've used too many words


*like how Brautigan's name appears in Hearts in Atlantis
and Ted is from the world of the Tower
was King intentional?

4 comments:

Jenny Jenny Flannery said...

It's a start.

Jenny Jenny Flannery said...

I think if you'd have stopped after the first stanza, you'd have done it.

Jenny Jenny Flannery said...

Edit till it hurts, Bombadil.

Jenny Jenny Flannery said...

...Unless you were trying to write a poem about how you wish you could write like Brautigan and wanted to prove that you can't (or don't really want to) emulate his style. Maybe, you're an evil genius and you're just fucking with us. Hmm? Well?