“On an afternoon so mirror-like and bluish/It seems Windexed.” That’s a line from Robert Long’s poem “Littoral Landscape” included in the now out-of-print collection What Happens. The poet is describing a September sun, but even on dry spring days I see it that way. And even though Robert is gone now, he died in October 2006, we still feel his presence in the voice that rings clear from the pages of his collection, Blue, published by Canio’s Editions in 2000, and from the pages of DeKooning’s Bicycle, unfortunately, also out-of-print, although we have copies available at the shop. This lyrical set of essays about the artists and writers of the East End has the sensibility of some of the earlier poems, paeans to the landscape that continues to entice us, inspire us, amaze us.
There are a million ways to describe the color blue: “the milky sky’s headache…” or “An hour of blue/ At once dense and slick.” These from the eponymous poem from Blue. There’s “the driveway’s cool blue gravel” from “Imperfect Sunset;” and the “painted powder blue room”of the muse in “Where The Muse Lives;” or the “green-blue light/Of Union Square Station, 1968” from “Tie City.” The “Chagall blue of the gas stove,” in “Storm” or “the day of achingly blue skies,” in “Fumetti.” No matter how you paint it, blue’s the most beautiful, mysterious, fluid color there is.
Friends of Robert Long have created a memorial scholarship fund in his name. In April we gave out the first awards to three deserving high school seniors who showed promise in writing fiction, poetry and prose. We plan to continue to make these awards and to offer grants to working writers. In this way, we hope to continue to encourage writers, just as Robert received a grant that helped him complete the manuscript of Blue. To make a donation to the fund, please send a check to the East End Arts Council, 133 East Main Street, Riverhead, NY 11901.
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