Tuesday, December 21, 2010

The Small Light at the Turning of the Solstice Dark

Photo: Dharamsala by Rosemary Rawcliffe


Solstice Greetings and wishing you all endless possibilities of harmony, good health and prosperity in the New Year and such small light to illuminate our path

I dwell in Possibility – (466)
BY EMILY DICKINSON
I dwell in Possibility –
A fairer House than Prose –
More numerous of Windows –
Superior – for Doors –

Of Chambers as the Cedars –
Impregnable of eye –
And for an everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky –

Of Visitors – the fairest –
For Occupation – This –
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise –

Friday, December 17, 2010

E. Gene Smith (1936-2010)




On December 16, 2010 E. Gene Smith, founder of the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center passed away. Gene was universally known among both Western born and Tibetan scholars as the man responsible for saving the vast treasury of Tibetan Literature. His digital library is the most comprehensive in the world. The leap from the centuries old tradition of printing with carved woodblocks to storing an entire library of millions of pages in the palm of your hand is one of digital technologies most interesting stories.

A memorial service is planned in NYC at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on February 12.

There is a blog dedicated to Remembering Gene Smith with a rapidly growing list of eulogies.

NY Times Obituary

I met Gene once on a trip organized by the Shang Shung Institute where a number of us (Jim Valby, Stephanie Scott and myself) accompanied Chogyal Namkhai Norbu to visit Gene at his home in Cambridge, MA. Every square inch of the multi-storied townhouse was filled with colorful cloth-covered Tibetan texts in various stages of digital scanning. Not only was Mr. Smith responsible for collecting rare Tibetan texts over the past 40 years but his digital library with over 4 million scanned pages preserves for future generations the vast treasury of Tibetan culture. The availability of these texts also ensures access by everyone of complete manuscripts, a major advantage of digital formats over printed folios used in Tibetan books. To read more about his contribution to Tibetan Culture, see the links below. A film about his work is currently in production.

Biographical details from Wikipedia


Smith was born in Ogden, Utah to a traditional Mormon family. He studied at a variety of institutions of higher education in the U.S.: Adelphi College, Hobart College, University of Utah, and the University of Washington in Seattle.

At Seattle, he was able to study with Dezhung Rinpoche and members of the Sakya Phuntso Phodrang family who had been brought to Seattle under the auspices of the Rockefeller Foundation grant to the Far Eastern and Russian Institute. He studied Tibetan culture and Buddhism with Dezhung Rinpoche from 1960 to 1964 and spent the summer of 1962 traveling to the other Rockefeller centers in Europe to meet with other Tibetan savants.

In 1964 he completed his Ph.D. qualifying exams and traveled to Leiden for advanced studies in Sanskrit and Pali. In 1965 he went to India under a Foreign Area Fellowship Program (Ford Foundation) grant to study with living exponents of all of the Tibetan Buddhist and Bönpo traditions.

He began his studies with Geshe Lobsang Lungtok (Ganden Changtse), Drukpa Thoosay Rinpoche and Khenpo Noryang, and H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. He decided to remain in India to continue serious studies of Tibetan Buddhism and culture. He traveled extensively in the borderlands of India and Nepal. In 1968 he joined the Library of Congress New Delhi Field Office. He then began a project which was to last over the next two and a half decades, the reprinting of the Tibetan books which had been brought by the exile community or were with members of the Tibetan-speaking communities in Sikkim, Bhutan, India, and Nepal.


Announcement on the Tibetan Resource Center's site of Gene Smith's passing

Buddhadharma article on "Gene Smith's Mission"

Click here for News about the Lifetime Achievement Award Bestowed on Gene Smith by the Nyingma Sect

Click here for Patron King article on Gene smith and TBRC

Click here for BBC article on the Tibetan Resource Center





A few videos on You Tube about Gene's work and achievement on behalf of Tibetan culture. There are probably more on the internet.






Homage to E. Gene Smith from Gelek Rinpoche
Produced by Jewel Heart




Sunday, November 14, 2010

The Politics of Candor--Why Howl Endures: A Review of Howl the Movie



The film Howl accomplishes much to convey the back story of Allen Ginsberg’s enduring appeal to generation after generation of readers. The film skillfully weaves original transcripts from the 1957 censorship trial, a recreated interview with Ginsberg in his own words (1959 & 1974) with an anonymous journalist, the Gallery Six reading of Howl, and animations of the poem’s text by Eric Drooker, a personal friend of the poet who endorsed his animations.

Not leaving the poem’s legacy to chance, Ginsberg on the occasion of its 30th anniversary in his 1986 introduction to the facsimile edition of Howl sets forth his aesthetic as a manifesto for the primacy of feeling or what Ezra Pound coined, “Only Emotion endures.” There, Ginsberg writes, "The appeal in Howl is to the secret hermetic tradition of art "justifying" or "making up for defeat in worldly life."

Film makers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman shine a light on the single most turning point of Ginsberg’s fate as a writer, which was not whether or not his signature poem Howl would be blacklisted as ‘obscenity,’ but that Ginsberg would choose the life of his “hearts desire,” which was simply to be himself over the life of the “mad men” he was living at the time (marketing researcher in advertising) —a life of stylish deception, wealth and cultural acceptance over authenticity. With that defining gesture, Ginsberg chose a kind of perpetual freedom ride in the “green automobile”* of his heart’s desire, whether it be with Neal Cassidy, Jack Kerouac, Peter Orlovsky his new found love, or the eternal youths of later years. Ginsberg chose tenderness and likely social failure with what he would later come to call sacred friendships. Ginsberg's notion as portrayed in the interview portion of the film, "That if you could be frank about homosexuality, you could be frank about anything" is at the heart of his aesthetics of candor. The significance of this statement proves the springboard for arguments in favor of the poem's literary merits. The film’s treatment of his homosexuality skillfully conveys Ginsberg’s heroic unfolding to be true to himself which ultimately led to his avocation as a poet.

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Ginsberg did not crash and burn but mustered his considerable intellectual and poetic gifts tirelessly working on behalf of his friends—assembling their manuscripts,promoting the legitimacy of their writing and in some cases supporting them financially. While working for Ginsberg, every year we, his office associates, filed recommendations routinely for poets Gregory Corso and Amiri Baraka to that august institution, The American Academy of Arts & Sciences to join the ranks of Robert Creeley, Gary Snyder and Allen among the established. Ginsberg’s fraternal loyalty remained undying to the end as did his dedication to civil liberties. When I first came to work in his office in 1989, Ginsberg was compiling long affidavits for the ACLU to counter FCC regulations which then banned the poem from being read on public radio although it had previously enjoyed nearly 30 years airtime. On the occasion of the poem's 50th anniversary, WBAI, the most progressive of pacifica public radio stations refused to air the poem.

For me the most affecting aspect of the film is James Franco’s reading of Howl. He captures the subtle nuances of Ginsberg's speech, his tonality and gestures and those oh so juicy Semitic lips that convey, at times, Rabbinic wit and wisdom with the depth of the speaker’s clarion call to truth infused with a moral certitude that the truth sets one free. As a trained poet himself, Franco knows his speaker well and knows how to read a poem—deliberate, rhythmically, and with distinct enunciation entering into the body and mind of the text. He rides the ebb and flow of Ginsberg’s startling imagery as it hurls itself into crescendos of ecstatic speech. Where the human voice falls short, Drooker’s vibrant animation takes over in glowing images reminiscent of Disney's Fantasia that convey the complex meanings. But mostly, Franco gets the poem which is not so much an angry rant but an empathetic howl over the human condition. Howl is above all else a work of immense compassion and Franco conveys this affect perfectly. Like many close associates of the poet, I was prepared to cringe in anticipation of an off-key voice, but Franco pulled it off. I found myself close to tears a number of times. This movie will be around for a very long time.

Late in Life, Walt Whitman summoned the poet of the future.

Poets to come! orators, singers, musicians to come!
Not to-day is to justify me and answer what I am for,
But you, a new brood, native, athletic, continental, greater than
before known,
Arouse! for you must justify me.

I myself but write one or two indicative words for the future,
I but advance a moment only to wheel and hurry back in the darkness.

I am a man who, sauntering along without fully stopping, turns a
casual look upon you and then averts his face,
Leaving it to you to prove and define it,
Expecting the main things from you.

Ginsberg the poet surely delivered on the ‘main things.” The movie, Howl, arouses us to justify the universal bardic voice of great poetry.

Some clips from the movie




As an after thought, there's one more aspect about the film that I very much appreciated. For many years, I worked with Allen's photos in his office. Almost all the set designs remain true to the original photographic record of the period down to every detail, even the texture of fabrics. Ginsberg's extensive archive of photography chronicles the magic of that moment in time before they were "Beats" with a clear and loving eye in homage to his friendships. The movie, Howl, captures hints of the magic for posterity.

*In a class at Naropa, I think it was 1987's spring semester workshop "American Values," Ginsberg said that the poem "Green Automobile" (read here by John Turnbull) was the first poem he wrote in his own voice--a kind of wish list for his "heart's desire" and a precursor to Howl. In the poem with strange prescience he predicts founding a college in the Rocky Mountains.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Cherche La Vache, Some Thoughts on Creative Writing Program Rankings and Advice to Prospective Applicants.



At last a response to the misbegotten rankings of MFA programs with David Fenza’s bold message on behalf of AWP (Associated Writing Programs). While I abhor at times the madhouse frenzy of AWP’s annual writers conference (anticipating 10,000 attendees in 2011), nonetheless, I appreciate AWP’s dedicated pursuit of professional standards for creative writing programs. Like any organization, it has its strengths and weaknesses. Some years ago, I called David asking him to arbitrate a faculty dispute in my MFA program. His response, off the record, was to initiate fair equity practices in hiring—unusual among low-residency MFA programs. He got right to the point about nepotism –friends of friends was no way to run a program.

Fenza’s message in AWP’s most recent missive reminds me of Evans Pritchard, the renowned anthropologist, who once said about studying the NuerCherche la Vache—In this case, look to the faculty. In regard to the culture of creative writing programs today, he encourages prospective students shopping for a program that meets their needs to look to the faculty, not the rankings (which do not consider faculty). And I agree with his raw assessment that such rankings are to writing programs what pornography is to love. You might get off initially but how good is it really. They also promote a ‘cash cow’ industry in academia for a few schools but leave many others worthy of consideration bereft of applicants or scrambling for an increased advertising budget.

As in any endeavor it serves us well to land in an environment where we are loved for whom we are, not what we aspire to be. If going to the #1 or the top-rated five schools, for that matter, means a lot to you, then by all means go for it. Once while I was working for the late poet Allen Ginsberg, I visited him at Lenox hospital after his gall bladder operation. While I was there, Robert Frank, the photographer stopped by. Allen launched into extravagant praise about his ‘great’ doctor. I’ll never forget Robert’s chuckling response—something along the lines I guess we’re all invested in thinking our doctor is “great.” Allen ‘s response was: “But my doctor loves me.” Faculty need not love their students but they certainly need to care about them. The relationship between mentor and student is psychologically sensitive as the act of writing carries a high degree of exposure of one's inner life. Try to land yourself where you and your aesthetic are appreciated, otherwise, as Fenza points out, you could be miserable. The illusion of being part of ‘greatness’ according to external criteria such as rankings (we're the best of the best) might very well be an unfulfilled waste of money. Sadly, the urge to rub up against greatness more often than not perpetuates a hungry ghost realm of forever seeking endorsement but rarely being sustained by it.

I can’t speak much for fiction or non-fiction writers but over 30 years working with poets—some famous others obscure-- what comes to mind is the primacy of community. MFA programs might lead to quantifiable success for some—prizes, publication, teaching jobs. For everyone MFA programs always offer some kind of community. So it’s also useful for prospective students to investigate the creative writing community one is applying to; some are riddled with competitiveness and toxic academic politics, while others are supportive, meeting the individual needs of their students. Some favor their “stars,” others are more egalitarian. There is something for everyone. And as Fenza points out, the burden of choosing a program should focus on the investigative skills of the individual writer, not on subjective rankings.

The hallmark of faculty/mentor excellence, in my experience, resides in their ability to enter into the students’ work in an unbiased way and to provide students guidance to achieve intended goals in their writing. Sometimes the last horse becomes the best horse. Good faculty know this. Over the years, I’ve seen some of the best students who are brilliant poets never go beyond that initial blaze. And then too, I’ve seen some rather hard-working graduates set forth on a path to launch themselves into the world community of writers by curating reading series, founding literary journals and small presses, engaging in guerrilla publishing and ultimately “arriving” as established poets. Ambition may be a great motivation for productivity but if misplaced can lead to unscrupulous endorsement of the dark side or “selling out,” in my generation’s nomenclature. Isn’t it better to get published or win a prize by an anonymous selection process rather than find yourself propelled by nepotistic practices? Great mentors make writers not careers. So choose wisely. Beware of programs or mentors who promise more than they can deliver.

To read David Fenza’s AWP response to MFA creative writing program rankings, click here.

An article from the Economist about MFA program rankings

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Variation on the Lonely Impulse of Delight

We don’t need to seek a solitary place;
To be without preconceived ideas is the real solitude

Khongtrul Lodro Thaye

Between a rock and a hard place
Platitudes of shock
When attitude unleashed to wilds
And tempers cooked crisp
To be without preconceived ideas
Is the real solitude

Flatten each thought as it rises
Mind-hut panoramic view
Of vast sky all the time
Problems dissolve
World the world is always with us
Each jewel
A singular perfection
No need for a solitary place
The world the world
AH, the world
Liberate

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Peter Orlovsky's Memorial September 22, 2010


PHOTO: Philip Glass and Patti Smith performing Ginsberg'e poem, "On the Cremation of Chogyam Trungpa"

A You Tube variation here:




Peter Orlovsky's memorial at St. Mark's Church on September 22, 2010 brought together the extended family of Allen and Peter for a final farewell. We began the evening by meeting outside The Thirsty Scholar before making our way to Vaselka's famous Ukrainian restaurant on Second Ave for dinner and then on to the church for the memorial.


Here are some photos from the evening.


PHOTO: Anne Waldman and Family



PHOTO: Peter Hale of the Allen Ginsberg Trust who organized the event


PHOTO: Juanita Lieberman & friend outside The Thirsty Scholar


PHOTO: Gordon Ball


PHOTO: Steven Taylor



PHOTO: Shiv Mirabito & Andy Clausen



PHOTO: Ambrose Bye and Anne Waldman performing Peter's St. Francis poem


PHOTO: Miriam Sanders & Bill Morgon


PHOTO: Bev Isis and Peter Hale


PHOTO: Juanita & Ed Sanders


PHOTO: Rosebud & Bill Morgan


PHOTO: Juanita and Robert Frank

Monday, September 13, 2010

The Red Silk Scarf by Barbara Paparazzo




I am happy to announce that Barbara Paparazzo's chapbook, The Red Silk Scarf, has been published by Shivastan Publishing ( Woodstock & Nepal) The Red Silk Scarf is the record of a pilgrimage to Bodhgaya, India, showing how grief can become an opening into something larger than ourselves.

The chapbook is $12 including shipping. To order, please contact Barbara Paparazzo at blp@stuaf.umass.edu.


(Excerpt]

[12]

Not knowing better, we hired
a blue canoe and rowed
through reflections of snow-capped
Himalayas
to a small Hindu temple
where black and white goats played
in the sunshine. We snapped
pictures, sat on sun-warmed rocks
& admired the animals about to be
sacrificed, we found out later
& all that gamboling turned inside out
reminding me of that slice
unexpected, brutal
between my life when you were alive
and my life now.
Two pieces, both dead.

Thursday, September 09, 2010

Memorial Reading for Peter Orlovsky (1933-2010) at St. Mark's Church on September 22, 2010


There will be a memorial Reading for poet, Peter Orlovsky on Wednesday, September 22, 8pm. St. Mark's Church. 10th St at 2nd Ave, NYC. The event is free.

Peter Orlovsky (July 8,1933-May 30, 2010) Poet, singer, farmer, yodeler, banjo-picker, Buddhist practitioner, Allen Ginsberg's lifelong-companion, Kerouac's Simon Darlovsky in Desolation Angels & George in The Dharma Bums, the generous & wonderfully whimsical Peter Orlovsky, was an unforgettable & hugely colorful presence in the East Village, and in and around the Poetry Project.

Please join us in a night of music, video, song and poetry, as some of his closest friends pay tribute to him including: Chuck Lief - Philip Glass - Ed Sanders - Steven Taylor - Hal Willner - Janine Pommy Vega - Andy Clausen - Patti Smith - Anne Waldman - Gordon Ball - Rosebud Pettet - Simon Pettet - Bill Morgan - Anselm Berrigan - John Godfrey - and others TBA

The following photos were taken at Peter's Sukhavati ceremony at Karme Choling, June 2, 2010



Photo: left to right: Peter Hale, Bev Isis, Bill Morgan, and Juanita Plimpton (nee Lieberman)


Photo: Juanita, Anne Waldman, and Bev in the Karme Choling Parking lot.


Photo: "Wake" in the packed shrine room at Karme Choling after Peter's Sukhavati

Account of Peter's Death by poet and long time friend, Anne Waldman who was able to be with him at the time of his death during her residency at the Vermont Studio Center :

Death of Peter Orlovsky “The Shellean farmer astride hid Pegasusian tractor” as Gregory Corso once knighted him passed on today, May 30 2010 to the elysian fields, a bardo of becoming. First glance hour earlier Peter was resting with “trach” in throat in orange sheets at the kind Vt Respite Center in Williston, Vermont ( but no extra tubes/ heroic measures for this advanced cancer on his lung!), a copy of the Songs of Saraha by his pillow, photo of beloved Allen Ginsberg companion of many years on the wall, other Buddhist images, iPod of music he loved including chants by Buddhist nuns, cards from friends and out the window a bird feeder with finch and red-winged blackbirds landing/taking off. Chuck and Judith Lief, faithful guardians and friends at his side. He had been moved less than 48 hours earlier from intensive care at a hospital in Boston, finally to hospice. His body we were touching we noticed suddenly turned cold like death was in the room. We got the nurse. Judy and I stepped out when suddenly Chuck called us back. Peter had opened his eyes. Chuck said “It might be the last time”. By his side now, looking into his eyes told out love, I thanked him for his presence in our lives, his poetry his care and love for Allen, his work at Naropa. Ah, I thought a flash of recognition shivering through! slight movement of mouth, light coming in on his handsome face through the window now, and Judy singing om a hum vajra guua padma siddhi hum in crystal voice said “don’t be afraid”. Joined in. Last breathes, one coming late, staggered: his heart/breath stopt. Poet Christina Lovin in room with nurse gave gentle witness who checked the clock 11:39 I think or so a.m. Earlier we’d played recording of Peter singing his Raspberry Song with great heart-soaring yodel and “how sweet you are”. “Make my grave shape of heart so like a flower be free aired and handsome felt” ( “The Snail”). Tibetan Book of the Dead readings, in full final repose arranged with blue shirt, hands folded, consciousness a joyful gardener sprite? no fear, no fear working its way out… Anne Waldman 5.30.2010 Vt Studio Center




Photo: Peter looking peaceful in the Karme Choling shrine room.



Photo: Peter with rose petals in honor of his gesture upon Allen's Sukhavati in 1997.


The following links provide additional information or memorials:

Internment of Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky's Ashes at Shambhala Mountain Center, August 28, 2010


"Impossible Happiness: An Eulogy for Peter Orlovsky" by Steve Silberman


Visit Facebook group: "Our Allen"

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Year of the Iron Tiger










Year of the Iron Tiger

Be prepared for uncharted fields
in the wild. Brace yourself to stalk
the prey of wandering thoughts
before you pounce
that old enemy—distraction,
all those frivolous wisps of hope and fear
hidden among weeds of mind.

Crouch low
Keep your nose to the ground

Smell wind
Hear the rustle of ignorance
when hungry to ambush
that wildebeest of one’s own rage.

Growl at adversity in the night
By day drink from the spring of Refuge
Flash your tiger’s teeth at enemies
Guard your pride with ease among outcrops.

Then, let your steely gaze ignite the fire
of impenetrable essence –
Awake in the blaze.


Jacqueline Gens
Conway, MA
Losar 2010

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