Cathy Eisenhower: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Things to Do in a Post-Doug Lang DC

 

Be sad. Be very, very sad. Worry about Sandra, Phyllis, Terry, and Bernie. Worry about Rod

and Dan. DM Sandra. Text Phyllis. Text Tom. Cry while watching the crane a block away building a

Whole Foods where  Walter Reed used to be. Try to right a line about regret and fail. Text

Leslie. Walk down 9th street toward Dahlia and begin to cry. Drink tea. Drink seltzer. Drink red

wine. Drink coffee. Eat loads of dark chocolate. Cry in an ugly way with chocolate in your mouth.

 

Read aloud from dérangé with Ken, Lorraine, Ryan, Sasha, and Tom. Listen to Ethiopian jazz

with Ken, Lorraine, Ryan, Sasha, and Tom. Listen to Aldous Harding’s “Horizon” on repeat. Cross

Columbia Road on 18th wearing a thin coat against the cold. Imagine Doug standing outside

DCAC smoking a cigarette on the sidewalk. Hallucinate Doug smoking a cigarette on the

sidewalk. See Doug’s crinkly-eyed smile hovering over the landscape. Write a line about regret and erase it.

 

Feel depressed. Feel really fucking depressed. Sink into such a deep depression you don’t leave

the house and you consider starting a new political party called “Doug Lang’s Party for Psycho-

economic Derangement.” Try to remember if such a political party already exists. Listen to

Lemonade. Think about death.

 

Be full of dread

Be full of dread

Be full of dread

Be full of dread

 

Listen to jazz while full of dread

 

Walk through Rock Creek Park mumbling there’s nothing to be grateful for. Get weepy with

gratitude for the sky, telephones, and the scene in Mad Men when Don Draper barks at Peggy,

That’s what the money is for. Decide to pretend Doug has just moved back to Wales. Scroll

through facebook looking for posts about Doug. Click the thumbs up, click the heart, click the

crying yellow face. Become obsessed with the Real Housewives. Make soup. Make scrambled

eggs and eat them while watching the Real Housewives. Sleep. Toss and turn. Sleep some more.

 

Listen to Mulatu Astatke with Ken. Hold Monkey and cry. Consider tying a bit of rag to a metal

nut and throwing it ahead of you to navigate all the way from Takoma to Adams Morgan, like

they do in Stalker. Sip two double Johnny Walker reds and have a great time with the poets.

Down two double Johnny Walker reds and leave before they hit.

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Cathy Eisenhower lives and works as a psychotherapist in Washington, DC, and is the author of Language of the Dog-heads (Phylum 2001), clearing without reversal (Edge 2008), would with and (Roof 2009), distance decay (Ugly Duckling 2015), and animalitos (Primary Writing 2017). She has translated the selected poems of Argentine poet Diana Bellessi and co-curates a reading series at Rhizome DC. Her work has appeared in The Recluse, Aufgabe, West Wind Review, The Brooklyn Rail, and Fence.

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                                                  Tom Green, Corpus, 1994

Comments

[Beth J]

Very glad to see this poem here. Says so much, evokes more, in a way that feels artful yet thoroughly honest. Thank you, Cathy and Terence.

[Abbie Mulvihill]

I find this such a beautiful view of grief - surrounded by loneliness and friends with tiny pockets of escapism. Wonderful poem!

[Bill Nevins]

Ah this is such a beautiful poem rolling through loving grief. I did not know Doug except via his work and of course Terry, but this poem touches my own grief and love experiences of recent years. Only change I would make is near the end make it a double--or triple--shot of Writers' Tears! Thanks for this poem! Slainte!

[Terence Winch]

Thanks for the comment, Beth.

[Grace Cavalieri]

I cried for the love of this poem and, knowing Doug, doubles the whammy.

[David Lehman]

I salute Eisenhower and this elegiac variant on the "things to do" form. Great allusion to "Mad Men," a terrific show that should be the subject of poems and essays.

[Indran J Amirthanayagam]

The geography of this poem is the city in which we loved Doug and were changed utterly. Thank you. love and poetry Indran

ps I noticed in your bio your translation of Diana Bellessi, a friend from one of my homes, Argentina.

[Clarinda]

What a tour de force!
Thanks, both of you.

[Peter Gizzi]

Love this Cathy. Loving the new Doug Lang book that Rod just published. xx

[Terence Winch]

Clarinda: thanks for tuning in.

[Robert McDowell]

This is a terrific riff on grief, memory, allegiances. It's a deep, deep dive into 'Internal Difference' where, our Better taught us, 'the Meanings, are.' Thanks so much Cathy and Terence. Surprisingly, I felt elation at poem's end, all the sadness transformed. Not so easy to do in life or poetry.

[Terence Winch]

Robert: thanks for that great response.

[lally]

terrific expression of the impact of doug's life and work and presence, and now absence....

[Eileen]

This is a beautiful heartfelt poem. I loved every line of it. So tender. 💔

[Bernard Welt]

Thank you, Cathy. (I'm fine, by the way. I think if this answer were a poem by Doug Lang it would say "Everybody's fine.")
I think Doug Lang may have inspired more poems (and more unheralded poems) than any other recent poet writing in English. You never read his stuff without wanting to write something yourself, usually in response. I hope people are poring over the poems decades from now--partly because I hope there are people decades from now--and feeling the close and direct presence of someone they feel like they know, the way I read Keats sometimes and feel like, Hey, I know this guy. Doug Lang is the poetry equivalent of the actor that one would happily hear read the phone book.
(Yes, that's right -- the phone book. An actual book of names and phone numbers. What a concept.)

[Diane Ward]

A wonderful reflection of — and on — Doug and his life/work. Thanks so much, Cathy.

[Peter Kearney]

Doug Lang is a new name to me and this rich poem abounds in allusions beyond me. Online searching soon showed me an obituary for Doug written by Terence. My sympathy, Terence, on the passing of a close friend. The name Mulatu Astatke explained the reference to jazz, for he combined Ethiopian music and jazz and became known as the father of Ethio-jazz. One obituary for Doug asked for donations to the Maple Farm Sanctuary, a home for rescued farm animals whose advocates hold that these creatures should not be our food. After all, they want to live. If I may adapt a phrase from fellow respondent Bernard Welt: Hey, I know these guys!

[Terence Winch]

Thanks, Peter. Doug was indeed one my closest friends ever. He was a brilliant writer and a charismatic person, beloved by many.

[Susan Campbell]

Terrific poem!

[Chris Mason]

This is a wonderful poem that gives me so many pictures and memories of Doug and you and poetry readings in DC and Baltimore. Thank you, Cathy.

[Mike winch]

Amazing poem. Thank you for sharing!

[Terence Winch]

Dear Mike: Thanks for your comment.

[David Beaudouin]

Thanks, Cathy:

That about sums it up - beautifully.

[Elinor Nauen]

Oh, man. This breaks my heart. Thank you, Cathy & Terence.

[Terence Winch]

Elinor: Thanks for the comment.