interviews - Night Hawke

Night Hawke
chicagoland

Biker Poet/Engineering Consultant

It's been said Hawke is a Poet Sprite caught in the corporate cracks by his most eloquent and respected friend. Others have merely said he's fucked up and unhappy.

Having grown up in the soybean fields of West Tennessee he's now a biker poet living around Chicagoland somewhere.

Hawke finally admited he qualifies as a poet due to his bi-polaresque mood swings but refuses to take medication for it. "After all, why fuck up the one thing I has goin for me?"

As a musician, photographer, digital artist, writer, and fitness nut he maintains his humility is what makes him great. His creative endeavors are aimed at shining a big bright light on the absurdities in our western culture he has proclaimed dead and injecting passion back into the universe.

Though many find it odd that a counterculture rebel is dedicated to helping people get fit he points out, "In a culture where over 50% of the adult population is obese (that's 97million Amerikans) getting away from the TV remote is radical!. And if people get fit they might actually have some real sex sometime--what a concept."

• What do you do for a living?

I currently hold the patent rights to the noun. I noticed several years back that nobody had patented language so I went ahead and applied. The royalties were appealing but the temptation was just too great to sell off the other parts of speech for quick cash, which was a mistake. Who would have guessed expletives would become so popular? Whole conversations can be had with just expletives:

Fuck

Shit

Damn!

That's why the Christians are so uptight about dirty words these days. They hate all those royalties going to Larry Flynt. (Your check's in the mail Larry -- or you can just use any three nouns you want.) Chris Rock and Eddie Murphy are into him DEEP! The Vatican had made a bid for four-letter words but I felt they would suppress the technology. I wanted it to be in the hands of someone that really cared about it -- but Carlin couldn't afford it. Pornography is more lucrative than prophecy. I think Larry's done a great job though. He's suing right now for the adverbs 'harder' and 'faster' but I don't think Hef is going to budge.

Regarding the question though American's ask, "What do you do?" and Europeans ask, "Where are you from?" just as a means to make conversation. It's like seeing a little kid and you don't know what to say to him because you're not one anymore so you ask him, "and what do you want to be when you grow up?" Which was always a fun question because I'd say things to fuck with adults;
"An ambalance."
"No, no.. you can't be an ambulance. You mean an ambulance driver." They'd say."No I wanna be an ambalance."
"But you can't be!" and then I'd start to cry and say, "mommy mommy the policeman's being mean to me."
In reality though does anybody give a [bleep] where anyone is from or what they do? I used to have a lot of money that I made from working in huge corporations doing really boring stuff. Which is funny because they keep promoting you into higher and higher responsibilities and tie your hands more and more so that you can't actually do anything. So for a lot of years I was a professional scapegoat.
But I think it was Lawrence Ferlinghetti that said, "To be a poet at 16 is to be 16. To be a poet at 40 is to be a poet." So I guess this month I'm finally going to be a poet.
I notice the-hold uses lots of nouns

• Who are your favorite artists?

My kids. I have seven refrigerators full of my eleven year old's work. She's very prolific. Wouldn't that be a great way for galleries to save money? Screw the rent. Exhibit at your nearest appliance store. Go into Circuit City or Sears and just hang your stuff up with kitchen magnets. Keep the wine right there in the fridge. Plenty of stereos around for music. Financing available.
But she has a style all her own. Elongated triangle people. Her work is unmistakable. It's unfortunate she's growing up too because soon she's going to try to get good which will spoil it.
My son's work is more utilitarian. SKERATCH! -- "I dare you to cross that line." He's very into wrestling. Not WWF or anything -- he just likes to do it. He's unleashing his creativity in Lego art these days. Amazing.
The two-year-old is into graffiti. Turn your back 15 seconds and there's not a blank wall in the house. All free flowing and uninhibited. "Wait Boo.. Missed a spot up there on the ceiling."
I think it adds value to the house. "Paint? What?"
Jeez.... Realtors. What do they know about art?

• What influences you to write about/how you do?

If you have to ask you've never read me. But just for shits and giggles I will say I think the optimists and pessimists have had it wrong all along. I want to know what's in the fucking glass. Who cares if it's half full or half empty?Passion's what it's all about. Love, sex, betrayal -- those are the great themes of literature. Is anybody reading this?
Is this thing on..? Testing.... One.. Two .... Testing...??
I don't think it's working.
Can I get a sound check?
But you have to have passion. Most people are only passionate about their lawn. Or football. If they love their lawn enough it might make for interesting reading.

• Where do you see the underground writing scene in 25 years?

In prison like everything else. By then everyone will be in prison due to electronic monitoring, DNA evidence, mandatory sentencing laws, and strict limits on appeals. We'll all take turns guarding each other and there will be little brother cameras all over to guard the guards. Even the judges will be in prison. But, they'll get out on work release so they can re-sentence everyone when their current sentence is up.
The whole country will be a huge penal farm. That will no doubt make Cait happy. Penises growing every where. But talk about great sex -- It will be prison after all. Men will be buggering men. The bottoms will say things like, "But there's women here!" And the tops will say back, "Sorry love, its prison -- got to." Straight men will be sodomizing the women. The women will say things like, "Oww!" and the men will say, "Sorry love, its prison -- got to."
That's the funny thing about men and women. Every man wants to poke his girl in the ass. They'll be making love and he'll be sticking fingers in like that's something that's going to turn her on. He'll pressure her to have anal sex and tell her things like, "but baby it won't hurt after we get started -- it will feel good once you get used to it." But, ask him if he wants to go to prison! No! Why not? Because he doesn't want what? And at least we have a prostate gland up in there.But everyone will be in prison. Except the children. They'll be running things, which will be an improvement. The rest of the world will be gone though because well, when you have a ten-year-old president with his finger on the button-- They just like to push buttons to see what happens. Doesn't that make you nervous about Dubya? "Oh, I thought that was the TV remote. Sorry." KA BAM... Mushroom Cloud all over the Place -- Bukowski's Bomb written all up in the sky. Did you ever wonder if the Pentagon just gives the President a fake button to make him think he's in control? The war room is actually just a huge video game to make him feel good when he's frustrated. Bad press conference... boom! Ruins a good cigar.. Boom!
The kids will be in reform school though. And their teachers will say things to them like, "If you don't buckle down and pay attention you're never going to make it in real prison mister!" Once they graduate they'll be sentenced according to their grades. Of course being in prison means free college -- but what will you do with a degree when you can never get out?
What were we talking about? Do you think I have A.D.D.?
Poetry. Right. Underground.
Doesn't this question invoke the powers of Hiesenburg to a certain extent? I mean -- if we can imagine that underground writing will be in a certain place in the future doesn't that preclude it actually being there? Just for the sake of fun though I suppose it's worth exploring a bit.
If you examine the whole premise of something being underground that indicates it needs to be hidden. (Now was that a totally wasted sentence or what?) People have tended to say the underground is the internet but in reality how can the underground be on a medium that's monitored by the federales? Seriously. If there's going to be an element of protest to it -- how can you do it with Carnivore out there eating everybody's cookies?
I think the internet has given rise to some interesting trends in poetry -- particularly in the arena of interactivity. Poets write. Non-poets write. They all post it on bulletin boards and respond back to each other in verse. I think that trend will continue. But since wiretapping will remain illegal the medium will be telephones. Poets will organize huge conference calls -- (from prison.) -- tele-slams. Everyone will get on and someone will start reading his or her poetry. Others will respond back in extemporaneous verse. It will be a magical gestalt. Mystical moments that can never happen again like guitar players jamming improv. The words will just flow and people will have spontaneous orgasms. Totally thesaurus free. And the women will be very happy because none of it will have involved ass fucking.
But as soon as they hang up, "Sorry love, its prison -- got to!"

• from cait - describe the smell of sex in 25 words or more…yaaa -

Sex smell like blue
dress
sequestered
back de closet
for to scratch and sniff
to see hoo
been cummin
round
oval offices
smell
like leather
seats
top down
parked in a
cow pie field

grass and weed
sex
smell like
poopy pants
spoiled milk
in a bottle
bottom
of a diaper bag
powder baby
fresh
and clean
hot an nasty
smell like
skin gloss
in sweat
smell like
vodka, jack
ciggarettes
perfume and a
musty motel
smell like
peppermint and
wine strawberries
cream
lotion vanilla
skin

yeah
sex smell like
a smile
and sleepy eyes

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