DOUG LANG

Doug Lang is one of those not to be overlooked or underrated poets and writers and creative treasures of our universe.

He’s a Welsh guy who ended up in Washington DC back in the early 1970s when I was still living there. He had written a novel, FREAKS, which I read around the time I met him, and that I’m sure he’s gonna be pissed off I mentioned because as far as I know he kind of disowned it. But at the time, and ever since, I found it one of the truest depictions of “the sixties” (which actually were 1964 to 1974) in any book of fiction back then.

He’s also a terrific poet who had his own unique take on approaching “the problem of the poem” as someone used to refer to what we poets do. and his early books, some of them one-of-a-kinds, I still treasure.

(Hmmm, the word “treasure” has come up twice in this post already, now three times obviously, which shows what I think of this guy.)

Anyway, I hadn’t heard from him in a while, or seen him in a few years, but got turned on to his art-in-DC blog (dadaville) that I added to my recommended list over on the right a week or so ago.

Now I’ve learned he has a poetry blog and a film blog as well, both of which I’ve also added to my lists—the poetry to the little selection of internet sites I have at the top right, because he mentions me in his posts about the history of poetry in DC as he has witnessed and lived it. I appreciate his honesty and his perspective in all that. (I’m in a few of the photos he’s posted there as well.)

The film blog I added to the recommended sites down lower.

He’s always been an original thinker and an avid scholar of the arts he’s focused on. I think you’ll learn a lot from reading his blogs, and probably about some artists you might not have heard of or know much about.

Check him out, anywhere you see his name, and dig for yourself what a treasure he is. (Four times! He’s gonna despise me after all this gushy shit, but hey, I love what I love, which is a lot, and why not?)