Saturday, May 18, 2019

Doug Livingston

Doug Livingston, poet, painter, art lover and intellectual , died May 16, 2019. He will be missed by his many friends in Thunder Bay. At one time, Doug worked as a lens grinder. In 1977, a good friend, poet Ulrich Wendt, wrote this poem about him.  I usually ran into Doug at launches, readings and other literary events. He often was called on to read his elegant and fantastic poems. I will miss him a lot.

Mr. Livingston

Mr. Livingston is a lens grinder. How?
His deadly work among the dials,
the burning oil, the powdered glass
like sugar, cocaine, snow
is over and over and over vari-grey
tone-lite, tone-ray, blue, green
and the occasional lens bursts into flames.

If you are free this evening,
he will take you slowly down. The grey March rain
has wrecked the old snow down, exposed
the naked neon junk man broken cars
dead bird and are you free
to where the empty men go no place in their overcoats
to where  old clothes, a wheel, a broken doll,
 a clock with mangled hands
lie useless in the snow and he will take you down.

He will show you down the basement stairs to where
his careful notions of distracted light
burn green, blue bending red. An unmade bed,
a broken chair and paints lie scattered.
He will offer wine in paper cups and he will offer
visions in a sketch book, page-by-page, the holy visions
burning in a slow turning brain.

Are you free this evening?
he longs and lingers for conviction.


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