"This is Hard Harry reminding you to eat your cereal with a fork, and do your homework in the dark."

It was the summer I was 16 and babysitting for this family out in the woods.
It was one little boy and he was so smart and the landscape was gorgeous and I didn't have that much drama in my life so I actually enjoyed the morning walks around the property and the board games at the farmhouse table and the sun tea.
The mother had a copy of “The Pill versus the Spring Hill Mine Disaster” on the coffee table and that is where I met Richard Brautigan.
Later I would fall in love with the whole beat generation, but for that summer (the summer I was still clueless- thinking teenage boys loved anyone or that you could fully mask the smell of cigarette smoke with Victoria's Secret Her Majesty's Rose lotion )Brautigan ruled.

I am always sad when read bios about him- "driven to drink and despair, he committed suicide in Bolinas, California, at the age of 49."

Karma Repair Kit: Items 1-4

1. Get enough food to eat,
and eat it.
2. Find a place to sleep where it is quiet,
and sleep there.
3. Reduce intellectual and emotional noise
until you arrive at the silence of yourself,
and listen to it.
4.

Your Catfish Friend

If I were to live my life
in catfish forms
in scaffolds of skin and whiskers
at the bottom of a pond
and you were to come by one evening
when the moon was shining
down into my dark home
and stand there at the edge of my affection
and think, “It’s beautiful
here by this pond. I wish somebody loved me,”
I’d love you and be your catfish
friend and drive such lonely
thoughts from your mind
and suddenly you would be at peace,
and ask yourself, “I wonder
if there are any catfish in this pond? It seems like
a perfect place for them.”

To England

There are no postage stamps that send letters
back to England three centuries ago,
no postage stamps that make letters
travel back until the grave hasn't been dug yet,
and John Donne stands looking out the window,
it is just beginning to rain this April morning,
and the birds are falling into the trees
like chess pieces into an unplayed game,
and John Donne sees the postman coming up the street,
the postman walks very carefully because his cane
is made of glass.

title quote-Pump up the Volume 1990

Get me delivered to yr email xo