Doug Lang: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doug Lang at the Rodin Museum in Paris, 1996. Photo by Sandra Rottmann

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Lang’s Special Fortune Cookies

 

Nothing special is coming your way.

Your luck will not change today.

Your sense of humor is of no use to you.

No one is thinking of you this evening.

Your determination has gotten you where you are today.

You will always be surrounded.

If you see someone, why not have doubts?

You have no sense and you don’t know what time it is.

Nothing in this one.

 

Please ignore the music. it is not for you.

If you stop looking for what you want, you will be sure to find it and lose interest in it.

Everything will now come your way and go right past you.

You do not need to be patient anymore: do not think, do not listen, do not heed signs.

You should regard delays and setbacks as normal.

Versatility is beyond your reach.

A good home is too expensive.

 

You are unable to show your true self to others. You have no true self.

You will conquer all obstacles and achieve world domination, but first you must shave your mustache.

You will notice that nothing has changed in the near future.

You are capable of repeating everything endlessly.

Don’t put your egg in one basket.

A true friend always walks away when you start whining.

A small house will not hold as much as a big one. This should not be a problem for you.

You have a superficial understanding of the arts and music.

You will never forget a friend who owes you.

You will go a long way.

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Doug Lang was from Swansea in Wales. He came to Washington DC in 1973, the year that his novel, Freaks, was published by New English Library. He ran a now legendary reading series at Folio Books in Dupont Circle from January 1976 to June 1978. His erudite command of literature, cinema, music, and visual art, along with his wit, intellectual generosity, and good will, made him the most popular professor at the Corcoran College of Art and Design, where he taught writing for 37 years. His most recent book is In the Works, Selected Poems 1973–2013, from DC’s Edge Books. An earlier collection, dérangé, was published by Primary Writing in DC in 2013. For more of Doug’s poems, see the Beltway Poetry Quarterly. For his 2008 post on the poetry of the 1970s, click here.  His film blog from 2007 is also worth checking out. For a multi-part, six-hour conversation between Terence Winch and Doug Lang, visit PennSound. The Doug Lang Papers are held by the Burns Library at Boston College.  [editor’s note: Doug passed away on 22 November 2022. Today, April 11, 2023, would have been his 82nd birthday. This post first appeared in October of 2020.] 

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   Doug Lang with Blaise Cendrars book in Paris, 1996. Photo by Sandra Rottmann.

Comments

[David Lehman]

A great conceit and Lang is equal to it. One of my favorite lines: "Versatility is beyond your reach." Another: Don’t put your egg in one basket." Bravo.

[Dan Gutstein]

A favorite. I believe I've heard this one read live. "You have a superficial understanding of the arts and music." Of course, the opposite is very much true for the author of this poem. He is the true Prince of Wales. Well done and Up The Swans.

[Faith Lieberman]

And exceedingly homely. Looks are everything!

[Beth Joselow]

I am grateful for Doug Lang. A poem like this should be on a billboard for all to see. Maybe two billboards.

[Terence Winch]

Glad you like it, David. It's a Lang classic.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks, Dan. It's a favorite of mine too. But I guess that's self-evident.

[Terence Winch]

It should be on every billboard everywhere!

[Karen Sagstetter]

Don't put your egg in one basket. I love it. KS

[Terence Winch]

I think of them as misfortune cookies.

[Doug Pell]

Already hungry for more and it hasn’t even been an hour.

[Bob Hershon]

First-rate, lively work. I'm glad to get to know it.

[Chris Mason]

Wonderful to read a poem by one of our great poets! Always a joy.

[Liz Hill]

Love Doug's poem. And what a wonderful photo of him, too!

[Terence Winch]

Thanks for your comment, Liz. Sandra is a very talented photographer.

[Howard Bass]

A delightful and enlightening poem by Doug Lang. For unknown reasons I have been unable to comment on most of the poems posted on this blog, so I'll take this rare opportunity to express my appreciation for the blog and in particular for Terence Winch's always superb choices. Many thanks!

[Terence Winch]

Thank you, my friend. Others have complained about difficulties when trying to leave comments. I have no idea what the problem may be.

[Leslie Bumstead]

Everyone everywhere needs to read this poem.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks, Leslie. That's what we're shooting for.

[Britt Law]

Amazing. "If you stop looking for what you want, you will be sure to find it and lose interest in it." Classic Doug. Devastating and hilarious all at once.

[lally]

brilliant! as always

[Terence Winch]

Thanks for the comment, Britt. You've got it exactly right.

[Tina]

I love this poem

[Bernard Welt]

Doug Lang is to the fortune cookie what Walt Whitman was to barbaric yawp.
In my reading, Doug Lang reminds us that we get so wrapped in decrypting our future that we forget the cookie. Therein lies our tragedy.

Doug Lang. Not content to be a pick of the week, he has become an inevitability.
The Sweet Singer of Swansea. The Tristan Tzara of Dupont Circle.
The perfect spy. Lang, Doug Lang.

And to think that this one man, modest and unassuming, harbors a nation's most explosive secrets in a small apartment in Silver Spring.
The mind boggles.
(I'll catch up with you when I'm done boggling.)

[Terence Winch]

So, are you saying you liked the poem?

[Becky]

Love this,
Thanks Doug