Return to the Mother: A Lover's Handbook: Poems of Self Remembering and Self Observation Inspired by Lao Tsu's Tao Te Ching

by Red Hawk

For centuries the Tao Te Ching, the book of ancient wisdom by Lao Tsu, has offered insight, inspiration and consolation to millions of readers. Although numberless translations and commentaries exist around the world, Return to the Mother, A Lover's Handbook, is a groundbreaking effort and a unique contribution to the canon of American poetry. In this volume, internationally known poet Red Hawk offers what no other poet has yet undertakeneŽ¯that is, to write poetic reflections on these much-loved ancient sutras. This collection of 94 contemporary poem (each 16-lines), brings this perennial wisdom into the twenty-first century–and adds the flavor and fragrance of Zen and Gurdjieff's dharma teachings in a spare poetic marriage with Lao Tsu.
Further, each poem invites the reader into the application of this wisdom to his or her daily practice of self observation and self remembering. The poet begs for a return to the true self, which he symbolizes as the place of the Mother within. No lengthy discursive explanations are offered, however, only exquisite lines that pierce to the heart of human longing for truth.

Our Mother has no words, She is
Silence, She is the present, here-

now. To be here-now, in this body,
is to return to Our Mother,
relaxed, soft, open,

kind.
Kindness is the nature of Our Mother,
Non-Judgmental Love is Her Being, and

we are Her children, made in Her image.

This volume is a companion and completion to the author's two previous volumes Self The Awakening of Conscience. An Owner's Manual; and Self The Path to Non-Judgmental Love. A Practitioner's Manual. Taken together, these three volumes form a trilogy, which examines the spiritual practice of self remembering/self observation.
The author writes from long personal study and experience. His years of discipleship within religious schools of esoteric knowledge, allows him to share what has been gained and lost from following a Path. The inner struggles of this type of work on self are rendered with raw precision, while being beautifully delineated in these poems. Any reader will benefit from the fruits of understanding the poet has gained from these struggles.

128 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2017

About the author

Red Hawk was the Hodder Fellow at Princeton University (1992-93) and currently a full professor at U. of Arkansas, Monticello. Author of 5 collections of poetry, he has been published in The Atlantic, Poetry, and Kenyon Review, and others journals. Red Hawk has given readings with Allen Ginsberg, Rita Dove, Miller Williams, Tess Gallagher, and Coleman Barks, and more than 70 solo-readings in the U.S. He has practiced self-observation for over 30 years, under the guidance of the Gurdjieff Society of Arkansasa, meditation master Osho Rajneesh, and spiritual teacher, Lee Lozowick.