Elegy By Richard Brautigan

At the event for Books at Twelve Ten at noon today, September 11, 2012 there was to discuss a poem, an elegy for his uncle, by Richard Brautigan.  The Autumn Selections and the Autumn Plan for 2012 has not been determined.


1942

Piano tree, play

in the dark concert halls

of my uncle,

twenty-six years old, dead

and homeward bound

on a ship from Sitka,

his coffin travels

like the fingers

of Beethoven

over a glass

of wine.



Piano tree, play

in the dark concert halls

of my uncle,

a legend of my childhood, dead,

they send him back

to Tacoma.

At night his coffin

travels like the birds

that fly beneath the sea,

never touching the sky.



Piano tree, play

in the dark concert halls

of my uncle,

take his heart

for a lover

and take his death

for a bed,

and send him homeward bound

on a ship from Sitka

to bury him

where I was born.