Eugene McCarthy

Eugene McCarthy died over the weekend. He was a frequent contributor to Unmuzzled OX. When Lou Reed won a CCLM prize for a poem in Unmuzzled OX, McCarthy handed Lou the check, and the three of us got our picture in Rolling Stone. Although I was the handsome man standing in the middle, Rolling Stone neglected to mention my name. Before handing Lou the check, the senator whispered, “Who is this fellow? Some sort of singer?” Another time I invited the senator to read poetry and discuss religion and politics at the Public Theater with David Rosenberg, Dan Berrigan and myself. Such was my manic Catholicism at the time that I told him it would essentially be a Catholic ceremony. David would represent “other religions”. The senator said he wouldn’t plan on any other Catholic ceremonies “except maybe vespers.”