thbof: 1st movement: condition: the state before consciousness

WEDNESDAY MORNING: 5:14am

seems every semester requires a diff production routine, depending on what days im teaching
this semester im teaching mon and tues, it took me a minute to figure out the production routine

schoolhousing S/M/T, W for transition, T/F/S my work, only just now feel like semester caught up enuf to focus

got a lot on my plate, got to read ninas manuscript, which is going to be a challenge, and
got to do this presentation on hoodoo spiritwork for a congregation of student psychiatrists

was looking forward to it but they been micromanaging me and im feeling a little hemmed in now, only
reason i took the gig on was because it was different and interesting but now i just want to get thru it

what i really want at this point is out but i fear its just too late to do that to them

feel like im being straightjacketed by the specificity of their expectations
and if im not having fun how will they

not sure what the students think they will get, an amusing rustic bush wizard is what
im thinking or maybe an academic talking about folkmagic as a field of study

whatever they expecting im not it

rdoc

 

SUNDAY

ok, ive done 5) WILL and working on 6) ACTION and only 12pm, but i got to put it aside now & prepare for class
but ive figured out how to clock two movements a day now, basically lower standards to where they nonexistent

its difficult to keep driving forward when you leaving trash behind, but thats what i tell i students they
have to do - hold your nose and clock those pages  - until you have a draft you not in the game

all my love

SATURDAY ADDENDUM

all day long i struggled with the page, all day long i been wrestling demons, what do i have to
show for it one movement: 4) SURVIVAL

to move forward even at this snails pace ive had to lower my standards of what i consider acceptable manuscript

i refuse to fail, i refuse to miss my deadline, i refuse

SATURDAY

mr im gonna kick butt and take names did not do not one passage yesterday, apparently i
burnt up my writing energy writing about writing in yesterdays post instead of doing it

my focus was on finding my dentist, getting my grillwork started
then i just chilled out and out surrendered to the blues

project like this most critical at the beginning, a good solid week of work and it will be programmed,
faltery day on day off work and it wont feel real, will not get me to the promiseland

so, a comment or two and ima outta here -

thanks & blessing: hope eghagha, brother i met palf ghana, poet and playwrite, is apparently also the
high commissioner for education in the delta state, nigeria - who knew - found out when he got kidnapped

by deltafolk and held for ransom, my understanding is that he has been released
thats the way i like my disturbing news delivered, already resolved

unlike this election, which has been all knotted up

after all the fire obama has gone thru to put the economy back on track, it bother me romney might be able
to claim both credit & benefit - by the time the repubs break it again, hillary will have to fix it, again

ohwell, not my concern, my concern is two movements - and a cracked front tooth

it would embarrass me to tell you how much money ive sent obama

on one hand i feel like its a sign of political maturity to fund a politican you believe in and i still believe in obama, flaws and all - on the other hand i feel like a fool for believing in a politican in the 1st place

much less sending them my hard earned money - but id hate for obama to lose
just because he didnt have enuf money to contend w/citizens united

i notice hes using some of my money to build a post presidency grassroots organization,
im impressed but hopefully it wont be needed until 4 years or so

also interesting how fully the repubs, the rightwing and the teaparty have shrugged off romneys pivot to
the center, how easily they ignore the insincerity of his promises - beating obama is everything to them

then they try to make blackfolk feel bad for circling the wagons
felt bad for staceydash, i was one of her only three fans left

but solidarity has always been our first line of defense
it dont play in this postrace reality like it did in the 60s

but when our backs are against the wall, the call go out
gather the tribes - shield and spear

(hmm, with a little fiddling i believe i can use that commentary in 41) solidarity

focus rick

thing about a big push, if you win one day, all productive & all, the next day the whole struggle starts anew
just cause you took care of business yesterday dont mean you will do it today

focus, rick

 

 

FRIDAY

finished 3) trial and now on 4) survivial, but it seem the old boy
got a little taste of the blues, im tired and im weary and life

been a little rough on me lately - family issues got the reluctant patriarch running & gunning,
fumbled my workshop this semester, & now ive cracked my front tooth and cant find my dentist

and obama, jesus that boy worry me - old boy rickydoc woke up
this morning w/a bad case of the blues

but its clocking pages keep the blues away, long as im clocking
pages i accept lifes little hammers as part of the territory

also - after much resistance, i have accepted averaging 1 movement a day just wont get it

and even at 1M a day im leaving holes in the text, which is counter to my philosophy of production
but if i cant figure the hole out right then & there, i leave it & keep on pushing, cant afford to sit & ponder

& id rather have a real draft w/holes than a 1000 page mess of notes anyday

got to do this while maintaining schoolhouse obligations, full court
press on all fronts - it weary me just to think about it,

but if i want to be a player got to pay my dues w/o whimpering, just buckle down & just do it, only way
ima get a project of this magnitude done is to throw down, allout throwdown, when & wherever I can  -

(then i wont have time for these blues knocking on my door)

so - outside of the proverbial act of god aint nothing stopping this party rock - ima have to
burn up some mojo on this one, this one will cost me lifeforce - but ima get my draft

you like calling yourself a literary man, dont you rick, in spite of the abiding disdain
of the industry & the literary world - well fuck them all, im the one make this call

clock rest for the weary & the hoodoo book of flowers, my legacy is assured - a novel of
historical stature and significance - hopefully - and a functioning holybook - gamechangers

i can only imagine

do it rick

i know you can

THURSDAY ADDENDUM

i got to go for it, i been up and down about this, because its fucking impossible
and its going to put my schoolhouse groove back on catchup mode

and im realizing not only do i have to do the impossible one a day, but that wont get me to the
promiseland, ima have to do 2 or 3 a day, 82 movements at 2 a day thats 41 days

that will finish my draft before the end of the year, because nextyear schoolhouse will be
brutal, the application process (500 submissions) 3 thesis advisees, and a new forms course

if i dont do it now i wont get to it till next summer, take a deep breath rick, showtime

but you know truth be told i aint happy less im up against the wall, trying to do the impossible

in the name of product, the almighty product - making books, thats what i do

do it rick

 

 

THURSDAY

im rocking and rolling, did 2) consciousness yesterday and
started on 3) trial & tribulation, which i might rename 3) testing

im kinda amazed this is actually working

but i dont think ima be able to do one a day, im already kinda reeling
but reeling is not dead in the water and thats what it take to stop

a full court press, we shall see

also did major revision on 1) condition, but ima just leave the roughdrafts up
anything i put on the internet im basically giving away - and anybody come

stealing i prefer they be stealing trash

man i am so glad obama handled his business tuesday
after its over ima have to think about why one bad debate

was so significant, right now im just trying not to get whiplashed
by the polls, by the ups and downs, the american electorate

never ceases to amaze me, its hard to underestimate them

keep your government hands off my medicare??????
regular folk voting for republicans??????

okeydoke indeed - i gotta go, trial and tribulation

waiting on me

 

 

WEDNESDAY

well, hello world - so much for the best laid plans
i tried to segue to novel but im still caught up in the holybook

i printed it out & was looking it over & i was thinking that at 1000 pages this next draft, the one
that turn raw notes into coherent text, would take me a year or so - then i thought about what

i tell my students when i challenge them to do a manuscript - just do it, dont worry about what it
look like, just do it and i thought if i bull run this on the computer for this 1st draft i can just bull thru it

get me a real draft before i put it down - if i stop while its just notes i will have to start from scratch when i
pick it back up -  if i make it a real draft the next draft will be percolating in my head when i pick it back up

and i would just like to have a real draft on gp, i surely would, something real, something to show
for all these years of wanting to make this happen, something i can die with if necessary

so i sat down yesterday and i bulled thru my 1st movement - 1) CONDITION, the state
before 2) CONSCIOUSNESS

what was about 10 pages (singlespace 10 point) of raw notes became about 3 pages of coherent
text, so if im bulling i might be able to burn thru those 1000 pages in the two months left

so, i got nine submovements per movement:

1) de invocation - where i choose a hoodoo haint (tribal ancestor) to represent and do a praise poem
2) de consultation - supposed to be consultation advice but i got to work it
3) de mythicals - mythical tales pertinent to the moment
4) de historicals - a sacred history of the blackworld a la memories of fire by galeano
5) in de tradition - hoodoo speculations - highmagic & the hoodoo way
6) de longgame - strategic analysis and positioning
7) de illuminations - spiritual observations
8) de geas of rickydoc - personal observations
9) de fa - fate, fa and destiny

i figure with these subsections i cover the whole of my interests
and dont lock myself into one mode

i cover the spiritual approach (illuminations)
the political, hardgame - (the longgame)
personal advice (consultation)
and so forth, different modalities for different situations

cause i really really want to be an illuminated spiritual force, but my basic function
is war prophet working with both hands, and a couple of magical ones

so i roughed out my first section, rough as hell but i will clean it up when i got a draft
now im thinking if i can get one a day (rough as hell) i can have a real draft of THBOF

this what i roughed out for 1st M, just to give you an idea of the approach, really rough though
not even a 1st draft,

i dont even know if this will be the final format, this is what came up when i drove thru, after i
cut all the slush of the notes and tried to make what was left coherent, it will definitely

be epigrammatic and elliptical, cause that contribute to it remaining fresh over generations

also trying to figure out if i will use (de) instead of (the) and where/how consistently
cause i want to use afroam folk dialect as sacred language/enhance its functionality

basically im just trying stuff thiis draft, by chronicling its evolution here is establishing my right to write a holybook,

as it is tell folk im doing a holybook and their eyes glaze over, i understand, its an ambitious undertaking, by
chronicling its evolution here, by the time its done it will be clear that this is the real thing, & that im bonified

usually i just say sacred text, folk can digest that better, but between you and me dear regulators, the bucknaked truth

the 1st movement is 1) condition, the initial state of being, before 2) consciousness
for this movement i call on legba, the god of the crossroads

in hoodoo theology all beginnings, all spiritwork, starts with asking legba to
open the gate between this world and the spiritworld

naming these movement reps 'hoodoo haints' is me trying to reset afroaam folklorics,
accenuating the positive, finessing the negative and not messing w/the in between -

traditionally haints have been restless spirits of the dead, but i figure to use its similarity to word/concept saints
and define hoodoo haints as tribal ancestors, basically deifying them as orisha, saints, loas and the like -

an african american pantheon, i know what im doing . . . .

------------------------------

1st MOVEMENT:  DE CONDITION:

I am
By God and all that's holy I am.

 

DE INVOCATION: 

Attend me Lord     Legba, it is I,     asking once     again that this     gate be opened,     once again     asking that this     work be done    In the name of    the Conqueror,    let it be so

 

 DE CONSULTATIONS:

condition: the state before consciousness
a perilous affair - best you wake it up, o ye

traveler, best you do it quick

 

DE MYTHWORK:

 in the old days, before time was time, all the monkeyfolk walking on 4 feet when one day the
monkey doctor say i have been thinking, & i believe if we stand on our  hind legs that our tribe

and all our generations will flourish, i believe we can be more than we are
like this, he say and he stand, weak and trembly but he stand and he say well

look at this, he say, if you could only see what i see, from here i can see the stars

why on earth, scoff the monkeyfolk, would we want to do that, what can
we possible do on 2 feet that we cannot do better on 4, our ancestors

did everything need to be done on 4 feet - why, pray tell, would the great
monkey god give us 4 feet if not to use them, you are a fool, they say

staring at holes in the sky has driven you mad

 

DE HISTORICALS:

 listen o ye generations, to the griotic tales,

whatever challenges we face we have faced them before
in the griotic tales there is always a way

for in the dawn of the world, before gondwaland divided itself, the first people spread
out from mother africa and populated the planet, the little dark ones - negritos all,

de kung, de wa, de tcheu-li, de semang, de malay, de sakais, de dravidians, de liu-kiu,
de melanesians & de khymer - de first peoples built de first civilizatons along the great

rivers of antiquity, de ganges, de euphrates, de nile, those
who called themselves de people of de bow

born in the shadows of jebal barkal, de sacred mountain of kush
o mother africa, cradle of humaity & bilal al sudan, land of the blacks,

born in the holygrounds of wo'se, nowe, khartoum, asselar, thebes, meroe, punt,
rozvi, zimbabwe, khol, san, nubia, nok, darfur, and the tassili mountains 

the sahara of 6000bc was bountiful, lush and rich and fertile, the people
were plentiful, proud fisherfolk of the sudan.

but it is in de midst of plenty that we must call on de elders of kush
gathering in de shadow of jebal barkal, heart of de holyground

the roots of divination are consulted and the story is told

de children of de sun must be scattered to de 4 corners of the earth
i am told they saw the days of slavery, the forging of gods instrument

 yet the old blues claim as long as jebal barkal
stands, the blacks cannot be defeated

it is in this work that jebal barkal stands
strong and true

position yourself

 

IN DE TRADITION: 

hoodoo often confused with voodoo, both part of a family of African retentions in the Americas
voodoo, like most ATRS, is a conventional religion, while hoodoo a magical system

when African captives brought to the Americas they were not allowed to practice their religions,
where allowed African religion synthesized with Catholicism, vodoun, Santeria, candomble, etc

where the African way was heavily repressed, as it was in the states, it became magical
under mortal siege and denied its priests, the afroam slave community turned to its sorcerors

cultural custodians and ideological orchestrators, guide and guardian of the tribal destiny

de gullah jacks, de nanny accompongs, de macandals, de bookman duttys, de zumbis and de such
representing the resilience of the African way in an environment built on their dehumanization

round about the 20^th century, mystically inclined Afroam writers start using it as literary ground - charles chesnutt w/conjurewoman tales, zora neales conqueror mythwork, ishmaels ideological orchestrations, etc

when folk hear the word hoodoo they generally thinking slaverytime hoodoo
spells, hells and blackcat bones, but as afroams have evolved so too has their 

indigenous spiritual tradition, the cutting edge of hoodoo aspires to high magic:
shaping reality, shaping generations, enhancement of the human condition

 shield and spear

 heed the call

 

DE LONGGAME:

 if you are of the will, this is the way - de longgame
what babajohn killens call being  - a long distance runner

i would each and every one of you be an instrument of power, each
unto self an army, master players on the hoodoo board of destiny 

shaping generations, enhancing the human condition

game on

 

DE ILLUMINATIONS:

awaken de sleeper, protect de weak, guide de strong

de hoodoo way

 

DE GEAS OF RICKYDOC:

 this is a book of changes, this is a text, a work of power
an African American way - a shapeshifter

 this is a hoodoo book of wisdom - a book of divination, a book of fa
this is de hoodoo book of flowers, de great black book of generations

 this is a work of prophecy - this is a book of wonder

Cast your vision young hoodoo as far as you can see
Determine the challenges the tribe will face
Prepare the tribal soul to meet them.

come then o traveler

i claim for hoodoo the prophets way

 

DE FA:

 listen o ye firstborn to de geas of rickydoc
and i will give you a mission greater than your adversity

i will give you a destiny