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Douglas Goodwin: Half Memory of a Distant Life

Jay Dougherty

Jay Dougherty

Mangling Member
Editor
Michael Acker said:
Just read them all.
Excellent writing.
Bukowski describes Douglas' writing perfectly in the last sentence, of the third paragraph, of his foreword(can't copy and paste).
One that stands out is Scum Bag...
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Agree. It's one of the few forewords that Buk wrote, I believe. I asked him if he would do it (I think he recommended Goodwin to me), and I was super pleased that he did.
 
When Jay Dougherty created this book, it was one of the coolest events in my life. - I wrote this to Jay yesterday and I'm repeating it here. - I remember coming home from the dentist after having two wisdom teeth removed and finding this package leaning against my front door. The package was full of these books with the Bukowski foreword that I was unaware of until that moment. One of the happiest days of my life. And 36 years later the impact on me has not diminished. That may seem insane (I don't know if it does). I can't extrapolate and I can't be objective. The book itself, the object in my hand, was one level of shock. But the foreword, in my face (with bloody swollen gums, anesthetic wearing off), was an explosion...it's hard to explain. I feel it now.
 
Douglas these are the real thing. Temptation is to read them all at once but I am forcing myself to come and go. I will def buy this collection.
 
Looking forward to reading each poem and to the upcoming collection. Thank you for writing and sharing these.
 
Douglas Goodwin said:
When Jay Dougherty created this book, it was one of the coolest events in my life. - I wrote this to Jay yesterday and I'm repeating it here. - I remember coming home from the dentist after having two wisdom teeth removed and finding this package leaning against my front door. The package was full of these books with the Bukowski foreword that I was unaware of until that moment. One of the happiest days of my life. And 36 years later the impact on me has not diminished. That may seem insane (I don't know if it does). I can't extrapolate and I can't be objective. The book itself, the object in my hand, was one level of shock. But the foreword, in my face (with bloody swollen gums, anesthetic wearing off), was an explosion...it's hard to explain. I feel it now.
Click to expand...
What an amazing relationship and correspondence you built with Bukowski. He recognized your talent and obviously enjoyed your insights and point-of-view. I understand that it's hard to explain what it meant to you. Myself, I am lame at expressing how I feel--the ability was beaten out of me, I guess, and I realize the detached and distanced style of my writing reflects that while working to fill some emotional gap to connect. I want you to know that your comments and encouragement on my work may be similar to what you felt on that wisdom teeth day--and I appreciate your generosity and insights. It means a lot to receive feedback and praise from intelligent, insightful and talented people like yourself. Thank you for that. I'll look forward to reading your collection.
 
Out the front window, just now:
Fawns.jpg
 
They like that we turned on the late night auto-sprinkler, and the three fruit trees (off to the left that you can't see from here). Cherry, plum, pear.
 
When we first moved down here (2008) and I was working remotely, I sent a similar photo of two lounging does to my co-workers up north. One of them was alarmed. She thought the does looked fat. She assumed I was feeding them, risking their lives. Endangering them for my own crass, bovine entertainment. A lot of assumptions there. I was not feeding them. I've never fed them. There's a creek out back and some woods. That seems to be where they hang out. If they're fat, it's not my fault, and they look okay to me.
People are so important to themselves and to the lives of everything else that exists. I guess.
 
Douglas Goodwin said:
When we first moved down here (2008) and I was working remotely, I sent a similar photo of two lounging does to my co-workers up north. One of them was alarmed. She thought the does looked fat. She assumed I was feeding them, risking their lives. Endangering them for my own crass, bovine entertainment. A lot of assumptions there. I was not feeding them. I've never fed them. There's a creek out back and some woods. That seems to be where they hang out. If they're fat, it's not my fault, and they look okay to me.
People are so important to themselves and to the lives of everything else that exists. I guess.
Click to expand...
Yeah. We had feral cats living under our porch at our old house. I was told by a local rescue group that it was fine for them to devour the songbirds and that I should build shelters for the cats. I finally called another group that came and relocated them to some cat farm with 250 wild cats. Still baffled.
 
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