THURSDAY
hello world
i am weary unto my bones
down in the delta on family business
and doing a full rebuild of rest for the weary
you take your manuscript and cut it up into little bitty pieces
then you throw it into the air, let it land where it may and
see what you got
divination by novel
rdoc
SUNDAY
lorigirl, pleased that it tickled your fancy
and hoping things well with you, sound like you in a good space
its been me and gloria lynne today world
im in a special state of mind when im listening to gloria lynne
not only do i love that oldschool sound she got
used to hear her late at night after we had been put to bed and my parents and their friends playing cards and having a good time
and it was moms mabley and pigmeat, mingus, fathead, ray and gloria lynne, you get the gist of it, takes me back
got to go back to the delta next week
gloria lynne put me in a family state of mind
got the schoolhouse blues, they ran me last week, and im back on a weekend Work schedule now
today ima try to finish the rebuild of rest so i can move into redpen next week
schoolhouse blues got me
got to beg borrow and steal worktime now
god i love woodsheds
i love being a full time writer
wake up in the morning and your only concern
is how much Work can i do today
guess you will be getting more commentary dear regulators
old rickydoc back in the world
i really wanted to be thru with this novel this time
at least a moneydraft, thats what i wanted, a moneydraft
patience puppy
will i never be thru with this cursed thing
i remember once penda aiken made a comment about having the
patience to move a Work from bad to good to great
i guess best i leave on that note
my day slipping by and i hear the clock ticking
tick tock
tick tock
rdoc
FRIDAY
“I know what it’s like to be on the side of the little guy against big corporations and corporate power, You cannot deal with them on their terms. You deal with them on their terms, their rules, you lose. You give them a seat at the table, they eat all your food.”
edwards trying to stir it up on the campaign trail in iowa
thems fighting words aint they - and i have to admit they appeal to the old war horse
wouldnt trust a politicians rhetoric no more than the man in the moon
but rhetoric does shape the presentation, and politicians try to maintain the front of their rhetoric
my concerns would be hillary, little too much pressure to prove how tough she is
obama would be a new way with the world, maybe take off some of the hot pressure on it
do some healing maybe whereas hillary would i believe dig in to win
but domestically i believe obama would be status quo, perhaps not as bad as bush
and under pressure to prove he is no black radical in moderates clothing
from neither do i expect fundamental change, guess ive just gotten too cynical
cause the powerful taking advantage of the powerless irk me too, it really do
whereas bush seem to thrive on it, was reading the otherday that they are expanding the
ability of coal miners to strip mountaintops, this is a heinous sounding practice where they sheer
off mountain tops and dump the refuse of which there is a lot in nearby valleys and streams
so what was mountains streams and valleys is just a level field of rubble
this sound like a terrible thing to do to the world, and indicative of an intolerable rapaciousness
i would like some fundamental change here
may be dissing obama, the onceuponatime community organizer, he might be ready to do some
stealth work, samesame clinton, and i dont think edwards is going to win, seem to be a onetrick pony
no foreign policy that i can tell and i dont
know that i trust anybody with just one answer
to complex problems, i guess im just confused
i think all of them have their basic heart in the rightplace
and can probably live with either of them - which is a reasoned statement
as cautious and calculating as they have been, guess this is
what being a grown up radical is about these days - whats practical,
what can actually be achieved, what reality got to be dealt with
but for a few minutes there those words brought out
the warrior in me
in struggle
rdoc
THURSDAY
hello lesley ann, i suspect you back in nordica, chilling
sungoddess, longtime no contact, good to hear from you
thanks for the props both of you, cant tell you
how much i appreciate it, specially
right along in here
going thru a little fire right along in here, one of my
boys bit off a little more than the family can chew
mounting a rescue mission
keep those prayers coming
funny space with novel, gang
finished draft but reconcepted endgame
which meant had to go back into text to clean up newly developed holes
which meant new outline, which ended up getting more extensive than i hoped
at the sametime im reading all this afroam criticism
and analysis of the great african american novels
and being impressed with the complexity of afroam literary thinkers
and how powerful the works i consider guidemarks really are
and striving to make sure my own novel is not only competitive
but kinda the next step, whatever that is, and i started letting the whole
thing evolve, ive kinda changed my narrative approach, mostly structural, moving
stuff around, giving different passages different %s of emphasis
im shamed to tell you this, so many folk think im just futzing around
with this novel but that is not the case, it just keeps growing and
i cant tell it not to grow, i want this novel to be a literary wonder
this my masterpiece, my great spell - my ima show the haters what time it is novel
and im very attuned to when im futzing off
and not being serious - this is not the case here
its just that ive learned so much teaching in this syracuse mfa program
its so clear to me that my literary training previously was spotty
a lot of things i should have learned in highschool im just now learning
talking metaphorical systems and literary visions now,
i used to look at novels that were being acclaimed while mine were going out of print
and wonder what are they doing that im not doing
now i know
and i just wish i had known when i was 25
but i was trained in the tradition rather than thru the mfa system
i learned enuf to write a novel but not the kind of masterpieces ive always aspired to
now i know
and thats what this novel got to be
i cannot stay on the level of literary achievement i have been on
i got to reach for new ground
dont get me wrong, i love who i am and what im working on and
i got no complaints, my life has been one blessing after the other
and my work got heart, always had heart, thats what got me this far
but now its got head too - take head and heart both to get you to the promiseland
now that i have learned a new literary sophistication
my work got to reflect that
this last year been a major learning curve for me
did my literary hoodoo class last semester and new literary blues theory class
this semester and my classes are always designed to make me a more informed writer
a better writer writing a better more powerful novel - otherwise i cant justify the time and
energy spent on them - in the last year ive grown immensely as a writer
and my novel has to reflect that - im feeling very apologetic about it dear regulators
in the last 10 years ive kinda fallen off the literary grid - in all this literary criticism
i been reading - my name, my novels, my work, did not come up very often, if at all
and the few folk that still believe in me waiting on me to finish
concerned that i might be playing with myself with this novel
i fear that myself sometime - but this last draft was a good one, its coherent
now, its good - but its not great - and great is the only thing i will accept
trust me dear regulators, it will be worth the wait
and aint nobody more ready to be thru than me
just gon have to work harder, smarter
one more time, rick - laserfocus rick, laserfocus
you can do this
i was telling chelsea a little while back, you gotta let a novel breath
got to let it evolve and take you to places you could not have conceived
before you dug down into it, before you got into the zone
cant hold it down, gotta let it grow - thats where the magic come from
built two new bottletrees in riverside park while i was home
one classic blue bottles, the other of found bottles, mostly beer
thanks for your prayers on the family situation
my love to you all
rdoc
Loved this post Arthur. Really . . . on a lot of different levels . . . especially these two lines
"and my work got heart, always had heart, that's what got me this far . . .
but now it's got head too--take head and heart both to get you to the promiseland." Can't say anything behind that, but Amen! (smile) Yeah, I come and vist your spot (blog) every now and then. But then, I suspect, you already knew that, huh? (smile)
Posted by: Lori | August 25, 2007 at 12:47 PM