Posted by Vale
Richard Brautigan was a writer and a poet. He died not long ago, which makes this poem very timely. Ed Dorn wrote it ‘for the post mortem amusement of Richard Brautigan’. Let’s hope he is:
A B H O R RE N C E S
November 10, 1984
Death by over-seasoning: Herbicide
Death by annoyance: Pesticide
Death by suffocation: Carbon monoxide
Death by burning: Firecide
Death by falling: Cliffcide
Death by hiking: Trailcide
Death by camping: Campcide
Death by drowning: Rivercide
Lakecide
Oceancide
Death from puking: Curbcide
Death from boredom: Hearthcide
Death at the hands of the medical profession: Dockcide
Death from an overnight stay: Inncide
Death by suprise: Backcide
Death by blow to the head: Upcide
Death from delirious voting: Rightcide
Death from hounding: Leftcide
Death through war: Theircide & Ourcide
Death by penalty: Offcide
Death following a decision: Decide
Ed Dorn wrote the famous Gunslinger. Brautigan is best known for books like The Confederate General from Big Sur and Trout Fishing in America
Thanks to Celebrant Kim Farley for finding the poem.
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I absolutely adore Richard Brautigan, one of the best proponents of psychedelic writing in the world. A true genius. In Watermelon Sugar is one of his masterpieces that I think deserves a blog piece, partly for the menacing nearby town of ideath, but also the beautiful tombs that the residents of Watermelon Sugar treat themselves to; underwater glass graves on the bed of a stream, lit on the surface with lamps burning trout oil. We are planning something similar when we open our burial ground!
I hate to contradict you Vale, but Brautigan sadly killed himself in the eighties. His daughter Iolanthe wrote a heartbreaking description of the time leading to his suicide called “You can’t catch Death,”
Thanks for the correction Ru.
I was trying to work out why I’d thought his death was more recent. I think it’s because I read some reviews of a recently published biography (Jubilee Hitchhiker: The Life and Times of Richard Brautigan by William Hjortsberg). Somehow memory had translated that into reading an obituary.
I’m a fan of Brautigan’s too – tho’ it’s the languid interludes of Trout Fishing that have stayed with me – dreamy and surreal. Big up for Kim who found the poem.
I thought it was unlike you, Vale, to drop a literary stitch.
Might one bother you to stick an additional R in ‘Abhorrences’, dear Vale?
Great to be reminded of the ‘Trout Fishing’ . . .
Done!