Saying Goodbye to Two Beloved Naropa Teachers: Poems for Bobbie Louise Hawkins and Bill Scheffel

Bobbie Louise Hawkins with Jackson Mac Low, Jim Carroll, Peter Lamborn Wilson, and Steven Taylor in the tent at the 1999 Summer Writing Program, Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Boulder, CO

A Few Words of Encouragement from a Retired Muse

With Love and Respect for Bobbie Louise Hawkins

your hand on my shoulder

your gaze of steel

and your love emanating

in the form of a growl of command

as you let me know

that you think I ought to keep it up

a quick moment

you’d soon forget

an act of generosity

powerful enough

to sustain me

for going-on two decades

thank you for the permission

to tell family secrets

to eschew starfucking

& to proceed without fear

            never explain

            never apologize

            make friends with the microphone

even the fiercest of protectors

must eventually leave us

            if all goes well to

be transformed into

guiding spirits

angels of reassurance

reminders of our impermanence

our damnably reliable

temporariness

Resurrection Ritual for Bill Scheffel

based on notes from his Shambala Meditation Practicum

Naropa Institute, Fall 1997

I wouldn’t say that I understand the environment;

I simply experience it. John Cage

are you on time?

what is your experience of time?

do you feel you have enough time?

can you listen to someone

without simultaneously critiquing

what they’ve said?

how much are we tasting all of our experience?

how much do you consider the beauty in your life?

does the universe have an opinion?

is there consciousness before opinion?

before opinions is the cosmic mirror

nowness is intuitive intelligence

something intelligent that just witnesses

This is perfect (perfected, complete, flawless).

Expression of a man I admire.

we carry the burden

of survival

we are under duress

we need to undo this numbness

we are dominated by narration

we internalize metaphors, and they can become very powerful

we can hold on to a particular thought for our entire lives

            this thought may not be true

the drala has been dispelled by the modern industrial world

barrage of competing thoughts like gunfire

patchwork of masks which form a cocoon

we don’t want to deal with the intensity of the moment

emotions are energy, not a story

what we see is largely memory

get over your mythology

reverse the process, flip figure & ground

notch, catalogue, pivot

change allegiance from thought to intuition

return to awareness

become where you are

look at what is

when you notice an intensity

become a block of wood (this is a metaphor)

                                   

(this creates space)

vastness in the moment

experience has a duration

beneath fear is tenderness

the warrior cultivates both fearlessness & gentleness

faith, creativity, joy, nature, trust

curiosity is high intelligence

awareness is my home

It’s a lofty goal, but I’m not a bodhistattva

                        I’m right here

I have already survived

 

What did you learn from Bobbie Louise Hawkins?

A Call for Submissions

Kona Morris has been working on creating a craft book with Bobbie, tentatively entitled Bobbie On Writing. Kona and Bobbie’s daughter, Sarah Creeley, have decided that in addition to the pages compiling Bobbie’s remarkable insight on the art, craft, and process of writing, they will also include a section in the book from people whom Bobbie inspired.

We are asking anyone who ever internalized something from Bobbie’s exceptional wisdom—about the craft of writing and performance, but also about life and anything else—to submit a piece for the book.

These essays (or whatever form they take) will serve as a sort of collective Afterward, a compilation of testimonies, for all those people who were never fortunate enough to learn straight from the source, and for those who have yet to discover the extraordinary gift that the literary world had in Bobbie Louise Hawkins.

Please share this with anyone who knew Bobbie, and email all submissions to the following email address by December 31st, 2018: BobbieOnWriting@gmail.com