family business

SATURDAY

hello world, been a good day for the righteous today, reid got his bill thru the senates 1st vote, rickydoc clocked many pages

im feeling a zone coming on, im feeling so strong ima go for it, draft by end of the year, why the hell not, just did the calculations, 4 pages a day until jan 10th w/one day a week off, usually i prefer two days off but two wont get it, 4 a day minus 1 will, showtime rick, lets separate the writers from the dilettantes, its like i been training all my life for this moment - lets do it

still got 2 novels need to be done, these novels been on my desk a year now, they been patient, they got to go, everybody else can wait until next year, ima try to get to those mfa submissions but im not inclined, i feel a zone coming on

(now this whats gon actually happen: ima start off strong, clocking pages, but before its over ima crawl up to the finishline gasping and whimpering with a critically diminished definition of what constitute a viable page, but it will be the finish line, ima move the ball)

this what i live for

cue the traveling spirit

showtime

rdoc

THURSDAY

kristof say critics call healthcare reform "a cruel hoax and delusion", say ads in 100 newspapers claim 'the beginnings of socialized medicine", business groups warn of deteriorating services', losing freedom to choose own doctor, and so forth, the lash of the dictator, the end of progress in america, so forth, etc - 2009 you say, well no, 1960

everything you hearing today you heard in the 60s against medicare and even before against social security, except this time they claim to be defending your medicare against 'socialized medicine' -

of course medicare is socialized medicine that seems to work quite well thank you, but never mind logic, its just some knee jerk selfishness on the part of gullible and morally flawed folk falling for the manipulations of vampiric moneylords....

okay rick, thats better, nothing about me, straight up commentary

rickydocs kudos on harry reid getting it this far, is there some way of putting pressure on the moderate holdouts, Lieberman, ben nelson, landrieu, and blanche whatever her name is of arkansas, oh lets call them what they are, shills for the industry

what about that report some time ago that the talking points of both rep and democratic house members were verbatim replicas of lobbyist 'suggestions' - i shoulda linked that one, still will if i can find it

my girl mary karrs new book, lit, is getting good buzz, i like it when my colleagues coming on strong, i like basking in that reflected light

okay, whats really on my mind, thanksgiving break, do i use it to catch up all this ofm reading or do i use this week off to catch up my own work - that is the question

if i get thru kims novel by saturday morning thats a whole week of nothing but my own work, a temptation i cannot resist

im out

rdoc

 WEDNESDAY

okay, i been avoiding this blog and facebook too, other day i put a post about edward p jones, author of the known world, on facebook and got all these thank you arthur for posting this piece responses,

folks showing much love for jones and thanking me for putting it up 

1st i was pleased the post had generated responses then

i realize hell i dont want to be the messenger, i want to be the message - that love jones getting thats the kind of love i want and i wont get it from facebook postings,

or this blog, dont know that my novel will ever gain that kind of love, dont
think its that kind of novel, or rather i fear it isnt, but whatever it is i got to be done with it

had to remind myself once again what aishah rahman once told me way back when, as a young cub i once told her i want to be the greatest novelist that ever lived, she said no art, what you want to do is sing your song the best you can sing it, that way you can appreciate other folk singing theirs

still buried in ofm, but i am getting thru them, im 3 novels down now, 3 to go, and gradually knocking off those mfa submissions, moving into closure on schoolhouse obligatories, im getting there, inch by inch, step by step - havent done a lick

of novelwork in about, god help me, 2 weeks now, but im clearing my decks and thats the dealio right now, i suspect between manuscripts and schoolhouse im not going to get much novelwork done for next 10 days

but come december 1st ima free man, anything hasnt been done by then dont get done until 2010

reason my posts so self absorbed these days is that i just dont have time to do anything but riff
whats in my head, dont have time to focus on current events et al, just dont have the time

so i sit down here at the sacred desk and i say whatever is in my head to say and its usually more personal than i care for but such is life - i keep wanting to shut this blog down but im addicted to those daily numbers

thats you dear regulators

im trying now to think if there is something i can say about something and i dont believe so

maybe later, maybe not, i got to go read manuscripts

didnt go to memphis, mother rallied again, will make usual xmas run

would you believe i missed ms graces memorial, ran into the mother of all traffic jams, took me 10 hours to
get to the city sunday, but i made the burial trek the next day w/immediate family and that was good,

louis called on me to be a pallbearer and that meant a lot to me, guess me and louis aint feuding no more
things like this tend to put the petty matters into perspective

used that time trekking to do a lot of thinking, and all the way down im thinking ms grace wont mind
im the one who tends johns grave anyway, so now i will just be tending the grave for both of them

couple of years ago i tried to get folk together to do an annual ceremony at johns grave, but nobody
was
interested so i just do it myself, ancestors have to remembered ritually to be viable ancestors and as long

as im on the set john (and ms grace) will get their ancestral props

last time i went there i charged up my conch horn - nice touch dont you think, that open book on his stone

i suspect him and ms grace both resting easy, they got their work done

best i get on mine, win or lose i do love the game

all my love

rdoc

FRIDAY EVENING

Mrs. Grace Killens Makes Transition at 90

At approximately 4 a.m. this past Tuesday, Nov 10, Mrs. Grace Jones Killens, the widow of novelist John Oliver Killens, passed away quietly in her home. She was 90 years old. Teamwork and social activism defined their marriage and their home in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, was a refuge and meeting ground for writers, artists and activists.

A wake and memorial program for Mrs. Grace Killens will take place on Sunday, November 15 - 3 to 8 p.m., at Unity Funeral Chapel (1406 Pitkin Avenue/Eastern Parkway) in Brooklyn. The memorial begins at 5:30 p.m. The funeral will be at Unity the following morning, Monday, Nov 16, at 10 a.m. She will be interred beside her husband at Evergreens Cemetery.

FRIDAY

i was just looking over some of my recentposts and its like you are seriously out of control, rick

its like stop me before i blog again - i wouldnt mind coming on so strong if i had work coming out

i put these posts out there then i look at them and its like, oops, TMI, lets delete that, but it be

good work so i leave it alone, you cant back up off good work - where does that get you

whatever

hello world

just heard from my sister that mother in hospital under emergency conditions
might have to get on my pony and ride

mother been bedridden some 6, 7 years now, we expected her to die some time ago
doctors wrote her off, she was ready to go, but my sister was not ready to let her

has kept her alive by sheer grit and 24 hour care, its been kinda amazing actually
and when i go home to try to give my sister a break it becomes an emergency
whenever she has to go to the hospital it becomes an emergency cause my sister

the only one know what to do daily to keep her going - nobody else can, its the most profound thing
nobody thought my sister had it in her but when the bell rang she stepped up to the plate

now she say its going downhill w/the quickness, same things folk told me about ms grace
but i kept putting off making the run down and missed ms grace, cant do that w/my momma too

whenever i go there sometime she lucid sometime she not, but she always smile when she realize its me
she always cracking jokes, still be commenting on the issues of the day, she cant hardly eat these days

but she love to eat, its her only indulgence she got left so im always sneaking her cookies and cupcakes
and the like, and elise know it, she allow it, and work a little harder to compensate for my quality time

everybody my generation got these elderly parents checking out, needing full time care and all
bonnie was just down in dc doing her parent thing last week, and she was saying this morning

everytime you can get some quality time in w/them you know its a blessing, and how much you savor them
its going to be real problematic in my life to try to head for the delta right now

but it will be much more problematic if i dont

missed my daddy dying, i had just left memphis and moved to la, and he had been in and out of the hospital
moma told me dont worry about trying to make it right back, he will be okay, but he wasnt, he died and i wasnt there

my daddy one of those oldschool general practitioners, classic crusty family doctor and kinda legendary in
those parts, momma told me the young doctors would come in and ask what should we do dr flowers

elise tell me about all these old folk from arkansas, his 1st practice, come in and do all this hoodoo stuff, sprinkling
him w/holywater, burning candles et al, told her your daddy a special doctor, say he heal with both hands

this news to me, i thought i was the hoodoo in the family, daddy took care of their bodies, i handled their souls
i knew i had come by it on my mommas side but it appear i come by it on my fathers side too - who knew

just missed my last blessing with ms grace, i hope this thing with my momma just another hump
but if its not i cant cry about it, shes had about 7 years beyond what they gave her and they been good years

lot of laughs, good conversations, that special smile she give when she happy

when i sneak her a cookie

fuck it all, im gone

sunday make ms graces memorial down in the city, and go from there to the delta

look like older you get the more flexible your definition of satisfaction

all it take now is a cookie

fuck it all, im out

rdoc

Comments

[BuffaloSoldier]

IN THE 1800S,DOWN IN ARIZONA AND MEXICO BuffaloSoldier salutes BAM. No, not the LionKing. BlackAmericanMothers. I read the SoulDoctor's blog and was reminded why I call him SoulDoctor. The full emphasis on SOUL. I looked at that soulful picture of his mother and pulled out the picture of my own mother that I keep with me always. The features, the eyes. All that has happened to them. All that they've ever done. All in those eyes, those features. Mom left in '68. I was very alone in my grief. Since I was one of the very few that lost a mother. See, we were teenagers then. We're all nearly sixty now and everybody is losing folks. Since I was there first, I've become something of an unofficial counselor. And let me miss a funeral. I once got a cousin's date mixed up and her granddaughter
berated me. "Why wasn't you at Mom's funeral?" Dozens and dozens of people at the funeral and I was missed. That cousin had a daughter that brought her home from the hospital and kept her until her time came. SoulDoctor, I'm trying to be a comfort. As my family was a comfort for me.
This is clumsy, to be sure. And I'm not saying everything. But, as you know, I'm from Philly. A song came from there that's become the anthem for mother's day. I'LL ALWAYS LOVE MY MAMA by the Intruders. See if you can find the long version. And may that ride with you on your way to the Delta.
I'm BuffaloSoldier and I approve this clumsy, off comment day message.

[arthur flowers]

good looking out

[BuffaloSoldier]

THERE CAME A BRAND NEW SOLDIER BuffaloSoldier salutes TheSpookWhoSatByTheDoor. New evidence suggesting that we're all sitting by the door nowadays. The Palin Factor is in full swing. And her get-fresh crew, the templars, RudyRushSeanMichele, figure they see the light at the end of the tunnel. In the short run, they're succeeding in Black Americanizing the face of The LionKing. They're decrying the decision to try the guilty in the very scene of the crime. They're also saying The LionKing is taking too long to make up his mind about Afganistan. That sounds very familiar to this Black American. "You folks just can't make up your minds!" Well, Stud from Spook had an answer for all of them. "Sheeeeeit!" I'm BuffaloSoldier and I approve this message.