The tragedy, however, may have begun,

Again, in the imagination’s new beginning,

In the yes of the realist spoken because he must

Say yes, spoken because under every no

Lay a passion for yes that had never been broken.

- Wallace Stevens

It’s been one hell of a year. I think we will be processing this one for many to come. I typically end the year here with a bit of a reflection, and decided to pause from the Lewis Carroll Puzzle Project series for a moment in order to acknowledge the end of what has been a life changing period of time for us all. It turns out that puzzles and cocktails made at home were two things that still made sense.

Japanese Karakuri Creation Group artist Yoh Kakuda created “A Long Wait” originally in 2012, but it seems like a perfect object to have organically come into existence this year. It certainly captures some of the essence and ethos of the lost time we have all felt. Kakuda felt compelled to remake the box again this year and recently released a few more copies. It features an androgynous character quietly sitting, with legs dangling, indefinitely. There is a palpable sense of sadness, perhaps. We don’t know what the figure is waiting for, but we have chanced upon the scene at a moment frozen out of time, between impatience and desperation. We recognize this moment, now.

Kakuda mentions the figure’s mouth in particular, explaining that it was difficult to get just right. Any slight sloping or angle to the line would give too much emotion. Even changing the orientation of view, from above or below, will make the mouth appear to smile or frown, if it is not perfectly straight. Many of us have tried to perfect something new this year, whether it is baking bread, or self-improvement, or something incredible specific like making a perfect line. Kakuda does it well – the box itself is perfectly smooth and appears completely solid, with no lines whatsoever to break the grain. It is a masterful piece of work, an unexpected mascot for this year.

It is not the premise that reality

Is solid. It may be a shade that traverses

A dust, a force that traverses a shade.

- Wallace Stevens

Kakuda’s work is like poetry, and always tells a story. I’m toasting it, and this long year of waiting, with a poetic drink, hoping that we will all awake from this dream in the new year. The cocktail is a classic take on the martini, which first appeared in the Old Waldorf Astoria Bar Book, 1935, as an equal parts mix of gin, vermouth and Benedictine. Created by French monks over five hundred years ago, Benedictine is an herbal liqueur made from neutral grain, lightly sweetened with notable flavors of Angelica, Hyssop and Lemon Balm. As such it is perfect to sip neat, or to add subtle nuance to a drink but may overpower a cocktail if too present.

A much more poetic balance for the drink is seen a few years later in the Café Royal Cocktail Book, 1937, where the Benedictine is reduced to half as much. Here I’m using a modern recipe from Lantern’s Keep, a bar in Manhattan which adapted the classic yet again in 2012. It readjusts both the Benedictine and the vermouth, bringing the gin forward for a more robust and bracing drink which is still well balanced. I think it’s exactly what we need to face the new year. Cocktail historian David Wondrich once posited who, in fact, the poet in question here might be referencing. After assessing the spirits used in the drink, the flavors, and the regional trends of the time pertaining to notable poets, he determined it must be Wallace Stevens, the Pulitzer Prize winning American modernist poet. Stevens is often considered a “difficult poet”, which is, I think, rather fitting for a closing ode to 2020.

The body dies; the body’s beauty lives.

So evenings die, in their green going,

A wave, interminably flowing.

- Wallace Stevens

The Poet’s Dream

adapted by Lantern’s Keep from The Old Waldorf Astoria Bar Book, 1935

2 oz gin

¾ oz dry vermouth

¼ oz Benedictine

2 d orange bitters

Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a favorite glass. Lemon peel garnish.

For more from Yoh Kakuda:

Ponder the pandemic: