A Poem

[LouEDavis]

"Terry Yager" wrote:

> Oh, KEWL! A poetry thread. Here's one of my
> favorites, written by Richard Brautigan:

> "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving
> Grace" (1967)

> I like to think (and
> the sooner the better!)
> of a cybernetic meadow
> where mammals and computers
> live together in mutually
> programming harmony
> like pure water
> touching clear sky.

> I like to think
> (right now, please!)
> of a cybernetic forest
> filled with pines and electronics
> where deer stroll peacefully
> past computers
> as if they were flowers
> with spinning blossoms.

> I like to think
> (it has to be!)
> of a cybernetic ecology
> where we are free of our labors
> and joined back to nature,
> returned to our mammal
> brothers and sisters,
> and all watched over
> by machines of loving grace.

Well I don't think it's very
funny! ;-)

Cheers,
CP/M User.

 

[pitlog]

I don't think it was meant to be funny. Richard Brautigan was a strange fellow. He wrote 4 or 5 novels, and 3 or 4 collections of poems. This one is the title poem of one if his books - actually one of my favorites. Probably his most famous (in underground circles) book was called "Trout Fishing in America", which had absolutely nothing to do with trout fishing, but which was very entertaining still. "A Connecticut General From Big Sur" was another of his seriously twisted novels.

If you get a chance to read any of his stuff, you should do it. You might not like it, but you'll be amazed.

Thanks for reminding me, Terry. I haven't thought about old Richard in many years. I've read everything he ever wrote, mostly because I have a penchant for the absurd, but also because some of what he wrote, although very strange, was very beautiful. He committed suicide back in the '80s I think.

-Tom