Brautigan > Poetry

This node of the American Dust website (formerly Brautigan Bibliography and Archive) provides comprehensive information about Richard Brautigan's poetry. Brautigan began his career writing poetry. Poetry was, he said, "way to get at some of the hard things in my life." Brautigan continued writing poetry throughout his life. Publication and background information is provided, along with reviews, many with full text. Use the menu tabs below to learn more.

          

Background

Richard Brautigan's poetry often turns on unconventional but vivid images powered by imagination, strange and detailed observational metaphors, humor, and satire, all presented in a seemingly simplistic, childlike manner. By his own account, this writing style was a difficult achievement.

"I love writing poetry but it's taken time, like a difficult courtship that leads to a good marriage, for us to get to know each other. I wrote poetry for seven years to learn how to write a sentence because I really wanted to write novels and I figured that I couldn't write a novel until I could write a sentence. I used poetry as a lover but I never made her my old lady. . . . I tried to write poetry that would get at some of the hard things in my life that needed talking about but those things you can only tell your old lady."
— Richard Brautigan. "Old Lady." The San Francisco Poets. Edited by David Meltzer. Ballantine Books, 1971, pp. 293-294.

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