Mayonnaise

The husband just texted me to tell me that it's Richard Brautigan's birthday.  It was sweet since The Husband is not much of a fan.  I was introduced to Brautigan my sophmore year of high school by my English teacher when we were covering modern American poets.  Brautigan is a little edgy and "out there" which was attractive to that fifteen year old girl. 

After digesting the small sample of poems from my teacher, I went to the local library for some of Brautigan's novels.  They had a few in stock but they were in "special collections" and accessible only by a librarian which added to the mystique.  I read The Abortion first and then any others that I could get my hands on.  The Abortion stands out as my favorite maybe because it was the first or maybe because of the library that the main character oversaw.

The library in The Abortion was a place where people would drop off their self-made books at any hour of the day to be put on the shelves.  There were no patrons to ever read them but the act of handing over a completed work satisfied the authors.  [Note: I am working off two decades of memory here - please forgive any errors.]  The summer after I read the book, a friend brought me to the Brautigan Library in Burlington, Vermont, overlooking Lake Champlain.  This was a place where anyone could come in and read the books, written by amature authors, and stored on shelves lined with mayonnaise jars.  I visited multiple times to take in the new additions.  The collection has since moved but to my knowledge is still alive in digital form.

Brautigan died in 1984.  Though there are more shocking, humorous, and substantial poems, the one that always comes back to me is the one below.

 

"A Good-Talking Candle"
I had a good-talking candle
last night in my bedroom.

I was very tired but I wanted
somebody to be with me,
     so I lit a candle

and listened to its comfortable
voice of light until I was asleep.

- Richard Brautigan                                        

Comments

[chrissieroux]

Thank you for this. Brautigan is one of my favorites--"your catfish friend" and "it's raining in love" being 2 of my favorite poems of all time. Can't wait to visit the library someday.