Poetry: Brautigan, cummings and the Victorians

Richard Brautigan, another brilliant beat poet, also wrote many short stories. While I was out scouting this weekend, I found a softcover collection of shorts by him. Since the title isn't one of the better known collections, I can't recall the name. Nevertheless, I'll be reading it before the week is over. The link above is to a poetry website that employs pop-ups and floating ads, so make sure your pop-up disabler is on. The good part of the website: it has 53 of Brautigan's poems to read online.

A favorite poet of mine since childhood is ee cummings. A short(minute and a half) reading of "somewhere i have never travelled" can be heard at the archive. cummings bio and a short group of his poems can be read at the Academy of American Poets.

While there, you may want to read some of Emily Dickinson's works or check out Bartleby which has her complete works- over 595 poems- broken down into groups based on subject matter. (Unfortunately, Bartleby.com also uses pop-ups!) If you prefer to avoid pop-ups, 3 books published after her death can be read online, also. She is another personal favorite.

People think of e-books as cold non- books. With the wonders of technology, you can read an actual open source book online about Victorian poetry. This doesn't take the place of actually holding it in your grubby. little mitts, though.


You can find books, old or new, by the wonderful authors mentioned above at your local independent bookstore or by searching at Bookfinder or ADDALL.