Showing posts with label Richard Brautigan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Richard Brautigan. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

my name





I guess you are kind of curious as to who I am, but I am one of those who do not have a regular name. My name depends on you. Just call me whatever is in your mind.
If you are thinking about something that happened a long time ago: Somebody asked you a question and you did not know the answer.
That is my name.
Perhaps it was raining very hard.
That is my name.
Or somebody wanted you to do something. You did it. Then they told you what you did was wrong—“Sorry for the mistake,”—and you had to do something else.
That is my name.
Perhaps it was a game you played when you were a child or something that came idly into your mind when you were old and sitting in a chair near the window.
That is my name.
Or you walked someplace. There were flowers all around.
That is my name.
Perhaps you stared into a river. There as something near you who loved you. They were about to touch you. You could feel this before it happened. Then it happened.
That is my name.



~ Richard Brautigan
from In Watermelon Sugar
with thanks to love is a place

 

Thursday, January 30, 2014

the return of the rivers





All the rivers run into the sea;
yet the sea is not full;
unto the place from whence the rivers come,
thither they return again. 

It is raining today
in the mountains. 

It is a warm green rain
with love
in its pockets
for spring is here,
and does not dream
of death.


Birds happen music
like clocks ticking heaves
in a land
where children love spiders,
and let them sleep
in their hair. 

A slow rain sizzles
on the river
like a pan
full of frying flowers,
and with each drop
of rain
the ocean
begins again.



~ Richard Brautigan

Monday, September 21, 2009

Your Catfish Friend


If I were to live my life
in catfish forms
in scaffolds of skin and whiskers
at the bottom of a pond
and you were to come by
   one evening
when the moon was shining
down into my dark home
and stand there at the edge
   of my affection
and think, "It's beautiful
here by this pond.  I wish
   somebody loved me,"
I'd love you and be your catfish
friend and drive such lonely
thoughts from your mind
and suddenly you would be
   at peace,
and ask yourself, "I wonder
if there are any catfish
in this pond?  It seems like
a perfect place for them."
...


 ~ Richard Brautigan