how Richard Brautigan gave us the words for all the artificial voices in the world

how Richard Brautigan gave us the words for all the artificial voices in the world

1969 wrapped up as sounds.
a last will and testament
fifteen years too soon.

smiling words,
spooned like sugar
into the microphone.

we have your voice
captured,
as you clean your teeth
and shave
and switch off a light.
in between the sounds
an electronic chirp
reveals poetry
so true
so capable of awe
that you could never have lived all that long.

from a teary rain cloud
you sit fishing for trout,
as underneath you
the world becomes worse than you could have ever imagined
as people hurt each other in ways that no one ever thought
you wouldn’t like it here now.
few of us seem to.

we have taken your recorded legacy
soft lilted and warm on the air,
and we have used it
to make all the pre-recorded words and phrases
needed for artificial speech,
each voice box,
each mechanical larynx
even information hidden inside telephones.

we are grateful
that your vocabulary
is like a fridge stocked with a list of favourites,
and your diction,
is like a good wine at sunset.

this is how we have chosen our tribute

perhaps when the clouds move away
and the moon shines long over a clear night,
that is your smile of thanks.