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The Pill vs. the Springhill Mine Disaster
by
Brautigan's poetic style is often surreal, often tender, with touches of humor. The poems are written in clear, straightforward free verse. Here is an example of his style from "The Chinese Checker Players": "When I was six years old/I played Chinese checkers/with a woman/who was ninety-three years old."
Recurrent themes in the book include love, sex, loss & loneliness. ...more
Recurrent themes in the book include love, sex, loss & loneliness. ...more
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Paperback, 108 pages
Published
November 5th 1970
(first published 1968)
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Community Reviews
Showing 1-30
Start your review of The Pill vs. the Springhill Mine Disaster
"I feel horrible. She doesn't
love me and I wander around
the house like a sewing machine
that's just finished sewing
a turd to a garbage can lid."
The instagram poetry of its time! I'm unsure whether or not I enjoy it on an ironic level!
love me and I wander around
the house like a sewing machine
that's just finished sewing
a turd to a garbage can lid."
The instagram poetry of its time! I'm unsure whether or not I enjoy it on an ironic level!
Sep 22, 2008
lisa z
rated it
liked it
Recommended to lisa z by:
the boy with the words
Shelves:
poetry
i was 17, i had dropped out of high school that day. i walked out of the cold dead building with a sense of complete freedom and sarcasm. i loved telling everyone there and my parents that this education would clearly not do, the beginning of a litany of bad decisions i would make over the course of the next several years. i was convinced there was something more moving and educational out there for me though i had no clue of where or how to go for such things. it was the first perfectly warm
...more
Of the load of books I read on my 2-week vacation this summer, this is the one I enjoyed most. It's a collection of mostly short poems that are overall funny and endearing. Anyone who writes a poem called "Haiku Ambulance" has already scored points with me. I also like the "versus" poems - "The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster," "General Custer versus the Titanic," etc. I like the "Galilee Hitch-Hiker" poems and also "The Wheel" and "I Lie Here in a Strange Girl's Apartment." My very
...more
Brautigan quickly became my favorite poet as soon as I read a few poems from this book. I know some people do not like the poems that seem "lazy" but those are the poems that make me love him even more. There are some that will really make you nod your head in contentment, and there are some that will make you cock your head to the side and stare. He proves that you can truly write a poem about anything. Everything is poetry as long as you think it is. Some are so simple, and the mere fact that
...more
UNEVEN POEMS/reviewed unevenly
Brautigan's words jump
like a funky beat poet
in ways I can support
I loved TFiA and see seasons of potential
on the table of this book,
but many
poems casually
rolled
onto
the floor (for me)
uneaten.
Brautigan's words jump
like a funky beat poet
in ways I can support
I loved TFiA and see seasons of potential
on the table of this book,
but many
poems casually
rolled
onto
the floor (for me)
uneaten.
“The Beautiful Poem” is a top of the mountain of all his poetry.
Today I read A Confederate General From Big Sur and this and also Rommel Drives On Deep into Egypt ... the poems from 1958 when he was living in Big Sur and forming in his mind the material that would become A Confederate General from Big Sur are amazing, how they line up with that novel. Brautigan is brilliant, a really great poet, but I think he is truly amazing in his prose. What he brought to stories, storytelling, his odd ...more
Today I read A Confederate General From Big Sur and this and also Rommel Drives On Deep into Egypt ... the poems from 1958 when he was living in Big Sur and forming in his mind the material that would become A Confederate General from Big Sur are amazing, how they line up with that novel. Brautigan is brilliant, a really great poet, but I think he is truly amazing in his prose. What he brought to stories, storytelling, his odd ...more
A mostly superb and seminal collection by Brautigan.
Brautigan's poetic style is deceptively simple, singular and charming. At times it carries the simply dignity of a haiku, at others it's a small surrealistic or dadaist masterpiece.
The Pill Vs. The Springhill Mine Disaster is essentially a collection of the poems that Brautigan had written up until the late 60s and, indeed, showcases some of his strongest work.
I have heard that Loading Mercury with a Pitchfork contains even stronger work and ...more
Brautigan's poetic style is deceptively simple, singular and charming. At times it carries the simply dignity of a haiku, at others it's a small surrealistic or dadaist masterpiece.
The Pill Vs. The Springhill Mine Disaster is essentially a collection of the poems that Brautigan had written up until the late 60s and, indeed, showcases some of his strongest work.
I have heard that Loading Mercury with a Pitchfork contains even stronger work and ...more
May 04, 2018
framptonhollis
rated it
really liked it
Shelves:
humor,
poetry,
absurd,
experimental,
weird,
writing-with-style,
are-you-for-surreal,
richard-brautigan
'It's Raining in Love' is probably my all time favorite single poem at the moment as it is one of the most relatable things I have ever read (*cries socially awkward, shy, timid tears*). As for the rest of this collection, it remains quite consistently entertaining, humorous, and amusingly surreal throughout, which is not at all surprising considering these are all poems straight from the brilliant comic mind of Richard Brautigan, one of the strangest and funniest writers I have ever come
...more
I love Richard Brautigan like he loves the simile
Nine of my favourite Richard Brautigan poems (god, how I love this collection)
THE PILL VERSUS THE SPRINGHILL MINE DISASTER
When you take your pill
it's like a mine disaster.
I think of all the people
lost inside of you.
From THE GALILEE HITCHHIKER (Part 4: The Flowerburgers)
Baudelaire opened
up a hamburger stand
in San Fransisco,
but he put flowers
between the buns.
People would come in
and say, "Give me a
hamburger with plenty
of onions on it."
Baudelaire would give
them a flowerburger
instead and the people ...more
THE PILL VERSUS THE SPRINGHILL MINE DISASTER
When you take your pill
it's like a mine disaster.
I think of all the people
lost inside of you.
From THE GALILEE HITCHHIKER (Part 4: The Flowerburgers)
Baudelaire opened
up a hamburger stand
in San Fransisco,
but he put flowers
between the buns.
People would come in
and say, "Give me a
hamburger with plenty
of onions on it."
Baudelaire would give
them a flowerburger
instead and the people ...more
A friend of mine had a glance at this book and said something that gave me an idea: if they had twitter back then, Brautigan's tweets would be like the poems you find in this book!
I usually don't read poetry. I started reading this book because it is a Brautigan book and found quite a few of its poems brilliant. As nothing is perfect, this book has plain and mediocre poems as well.
I usually don't read poetry. I started reading this book because it is a Brautigan book and found quite a few of its poems brilliant. As nothing is perfect, this book has plain and mediocre poems as well.
I read this book again today after more than a thirty year distance from the last time we visited. Not so hotsy totsy. But it was "ok". Unfortunately, by reading this a second time around old Richard lost a star in my ranking. I think his novels will hold up better.
One of my favorite all-time poetry reads. Brautigan's poetic worldview is unique, uncluttered, and remarkably non-pretentious.... and sticks to your ribs all the more for it.
Best poetry I've ever read. His metaphors borderline between completely bizarre to beautiful. Sometimes hit or miss, but when it hits, it hits so hard.
This is my first run in with Mr. Brautigan. I picked up this slim book from a free book cart at the public library. I read the poems a few at a time. There are great moments here. There are metaphors that are sometimes unexpected and poems that turn in surprising directions. Some of the short poems resonate in meaningful and insightful ways. Others left me wondering what the hell he was talking about. One sentiment I liked "If I were dead/ I couldn't attract / a female fly." One of my favorite
...more
The collection would be twice as good with half as many poems—if the right half were selected—but even so it’s easy to read, breezy, humorous, sometimes trite. The best have a sly humor, sharp imagery (occasionally reminiscent of Robert Bly’s), and/or deep humanity. Akin to the Beats, and the deep image poets, and probably Rod McKuen if I knew what he wrote like.
Death by mine disaster vs. conception denied by chemistry, neither win as life and its vagaries triumph in Brautigan's poetry.
There is something about reading Brautigan that reignites my flame for poetry. I'll be on a poetry kick for the next week.
A book of poems, the best of which (for me) are the titles funny, clever, quirky. They are mostly love poems and/or paeans to his long blonde lover. There was a fun series of nine or so poems with Baudelaire as central character; and, a few with Hamlet, Ophelia, too. It is a Beat style collection more free flow riffs than anything. The kind of poems to pass around between friends reading aloud at campfire whilst getting high on whatever. Just fun.
I live in the Twentieth Century
and you lie here beside me. You
were unhappy when you fell asleep.
There was nothing I could do about
it. I felt helpless. Your face
is so beautiful that I cannot stop
to describe it, and there's nothing
I can do to make you happy while
you sleep.
and you lie here beside me. You
were unhappy when you fell asleep.
There was nothing I could do about
it. I felt helpless. Your face
is so beautiful that I cannot stop
to describe it, and there's nothing
I can do to make you happy while
you sleep.
5, since I couldn't rate it lower because of "Star Hole"
Am I much of a poetry reader?
No, I am not.
But this, nonetheless, is easy to enjoy.
No, I am not.
But this, nonetheless, is easy to enjoy.
I don't have anything nice to say about this.
2.5
eh
some of these were good-great
most were just ok-bad
eh
some of these were good-great
most were just ok-bad
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) ...more
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) ...more
The second part of the tripartite collection I obtained by Richard Brautigan, I have no idea how this collection stands apart amongst his other poetry collections. But overall Brautigans poems are less like poems and more like life ruminations in the shape of poems. I feel like Brautigan didn't take his poems that seriously: which isn't a bad thing necessarily, people can take it or leave it as they will. But not only were his poems very fleeting - they went in and out of my mind in a fraction
...more
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace
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 ...more
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 ...more
It's like Bukowski and Pound had a love child in the 50's and this is that child's note book as he falls in love in the 60's and 70's. Very terse, often simple, sometimes funny, sometimes touchingly vulgar, Brautigan's poetry is simple yet redolent with meaning. His love poems show clear devotion, his nature poems also incorporate his fascination with technology, his...random? poems capture the minutiae of random moments of boredom, of time-killing. The imagery is often dream like and colorful,
...more
Re-read most of this today on a short bus trip around town so I'd have something of Brautigan's to talk about for a writing activity I'm taking part in this month. I love his work and am always amazed at things I pick up that I didn't remember from the last time I read it. His wit and charm don't feel too dated; at least maybe not as dated as one would think maybe it should be. He's not for everyone but you'll know within a few pages that he's perfect for you (or...isn't).
A short collection and easy read, but it didn't do anything for me. Brautigan's prose is so poetic and surreal and has such unexpected metaphors that I guess I was hoping to see those skills come through even brighter in his poetry, but these poems are the opposite---straight forward thoughts that, as another reviewer aptly described, read kind of like a twitter feed. Whatever he was looking for in writing them, it's not what I'm looking for right now.
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Richard Brautigan was an American novelist, poet, and short-story writer. Born in Tacoma, Washington, he moved to San Francisco in the 1950s and began publishing poetry in 1957. He started writing novels in 1961 and is probably best known for his early work Trout Fishing in America. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1984.
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“Boo, Forever
Spinning like a ghost
on the bottom of a
top,
I'm haunted by all
the space that I
will live without
you.”
—
134 likes
Spinning like a ghost
on the bottom of a
top,
I'm haunted by all
the space that I
will live without
you.”
“I saw thousands of pumpkins last night
come floating in on the tide,
bumping up against the rocks and
rolling up on the beaches;
it must be Halloween in the sea”
—
82 likes
More quotes…
come floating in on the tide,
bumping up against the rocks and
rolling up on the beaches;
it must be Halloween in the sea”
