The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster by Richard Brautigan (1969)

Richard Brautigan's first commercially published book of poetry (at age 33), including new poems and works collected from his earlier alternatively published books.

Poetry Review: The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster collects poetry from 1957 to 1968, including previously unpublished poems. Published the same year as Woodstock, the collection embodies the spirit of the Sixties while capturing personal, emotional moments and predicting the poetry of the future. Richard Brautigan (1935-84) was too late for the Beats, but too early for the hippies. Caught somewhere between he was just himself, one of a kind, and also a novelist (best known for In Watermelon Sugar). While he was not Whitman, Plath (his contemporary), or even Ginsberg (the leading Beat poet), it doesn't matter as it's easy to grow fond of his simple, direct, emotional poetry. Brautigan's work at times resembles what we now call tumblr poetry, Twitter poetry, or internet poetry: "I lift the toilet seat/as if it were the nest of a bird/and I see cat tracks/all around the edge of the bowl." Or, "It's so nice/to wake up in the morning/all alone/and not have to tell somebody/you love them/when you don't love them/any more." The poetry can also be absurd: "Death is a beautiful car parked only/to be stolen on a street lined with trees/whose branches are like the intestines/of an emerald." Or, "There are doors/that want to be free/from their hinges to/fly with perfect clouds." Some are surreal: "a cybernetic forest/filled with pines and electronics/where deer stroll peacefully/past computers/as if they were flowers." Or, "his coffin travels/like the fingers/of Beethoven/over a glass/of wine." Or, "Fish swim between our ribs/and sea gulls cry like mirrors/to our blood." Sometimes they're boldly straightforward and heartbreakingly honest: "I live in the Twentieth Century/and you lie here beside me. You/were unhappy when you fell asleep ... there's nothing/I can do to make you happy/while you sleep." Or, "I had a lot of trouble making/up my mind whether to eat Chinese/food or have a hamburger. God,/I hate eating dinner alone. It's/like being dead." These poems may make you want to write poetry, such as the ineffably sweet "Your Catfish Friend." Rock groups and pop culture of the time get a good mention ("The day they busted the Grateful Dead/was like a flight of winged alligators"). His poems are rare for the time in that they can be read straight through like a novel. Although the reader will still want to read each poem twice (almost all are short), they're immediate and easily accessible. Let me provide some background on The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster and break down the contents of this book. It contains 98 poems, of which 38 were previously unpublished and 60 were selected from five of his six earlier books. Those 60 poems are the two-part poem "The Return of the Rivers" from 1957; the nine-part poem "The Galilee Hitchhiker" from 1958; nine poems of the 24 contained in Lay the Marble Tea (1959); seventeen poems of the 22 contained in The Octopus Frontier (1960); and the 32 poems from All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace (1967). This collection doesn't include Please Plant this Book,  published in 1968, which consisted of eight poems printed on seed packets, four of flowers, four of vegetables. Brautigan went on to publish three more books of poetry, Rommel Drives on Deep into Egypt (1970), Loading Mercury with a Pitchfork (1976), and June 30th, June 30th (1978). Encompassing the first 12 years of his poetry, The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster is a perfect introduction to Richard Brautigan, and ends with this: "Spinning like a ghost/on the bottom of a/top,/I'm haunted by all/the space that I/will live without/you."  [4★]