hello world, its been awhile

WEDNESDAY 10/01

what im doing is posting excerpts from the hoodoo book of flowers
got 81 movements representing phases of life, still raw but making

them coherent, dont know if this will be final structure, im just
letting them be whatever they want to be so i can move forward

i will refine when i get the draft done, this one is

3:25: redemption:

we have, all of us, done things for which we are ashamed
if we say we are wthout sin we deceive ourselves, and the

truth is not in us, i have come to understand that
mistakes are inevitable but rarely fatal. 

i have come to understand that you cannot judge yourself
too harshly for human failings.  you can only do better.

whats fatal is to hide from error.  the strong move is to
face error, acknowledge it, incorporate the lessons of it. 

in bambaraland, initiates are called domas or somas, the knowers,
or donikebas, makers of knowledge'

for a doma, practice of ones craft is a sacred magico-religious responsibility 
as they are intermediaries between this world and the spiritworld

doma grand masters are not afraid of the unfavorable opinion of the folk and
acknowledge error publically as obligation and purification from defilement

remember this, o pilgrim, you weak not because you evil
you weak because you human - just keep trying to be the

best you can be, ,always strive to be greater than you are
restiuttion is the call, redemption is at hand

the gods are with you in this matter, rickydoc understands

good fortune

 

 

 

FRIDAY ADDENDUM

final cut on wilson: 

at yale repertory theater the evening of april 22, 2005, curtain rose on the first performance of radio golf by the afrospiritual playwrite august wilson.  this was the 10th play in a cycle chronicling the African American experience in a pittsburgh neighborhood called hazlewood.  babagriot wilson received much accaim and many awards for these plays.  he called it the pittsburgh cycle and it was his artistic vision to do one for each decade of the African American experience in the 20^th century.  radio golf was the last one in the cycle, 6 months later he was dead, but not before he had achieved his lifegoal as an artist -

this man was blessed – so too are we

im disappointed, i thought he died before the last show was mounted
i preferred my version, unfortunately cant work no mythwork on it

too many folk konw the truth

 

 

 

FRIDAY 9/28

the internet is fascinating when it comes to research
for real research still have to hit the books but for the

kind of stuff i need as a writer, like details about fort pillow for instance
i can just find it right away, in the old days had to trek to the library

this is a passage i just now wrote about august wilson

on _________, 20__, the play ________ by the great Afro American playwrite, August Wilson, was mounted at __________, this was the 10^th play in a series this Putlizer Prize winning artist had concepted in which he would do a 10 playd representing the African American experience in every decade of the 20^th century, what he called the Pittsburgh cycle.  these plays were acclaimed as masterpieces of american theater and this was the last in the series.  he died _______ days before it was mounted, he may not have seen it but he knew he had achieved his lifegoal as an artist, this man was blessed

then i thought, no reason to accept this, i googled august wilson
and now im filling in the blanks and im thinking this is so cool

been crunching the hoodoo book of flowers all morning, for
each one of the 81 movements got some historical or mythical riff

this is for 2:81:death  -  talking about legacy and getting your
work done - living the good life and dying the good death

in fact let me put 2:18:death up in toto

its raw, its rough, comes out of book of divination
this draft is not a polished draft, still transforming

notes into coherent text, next draft i will polish

but this draft ive had to accept a certain % of narrative chaos
in order to keep moving forward, aint got time to be pondering

ima desperate man

----------------------    

 

2:18:death: do not fear death o traveler, w/o death there is no
renewal, a good death it is the culmination of a life well lived

da baron is upon me, a celebration of
life & legacy - it is done, let it go

just another step in lifelong initation, the final movement, or is it the
first - once heard hippies on a bus refer to death as a graduation

if you are strong in the spirit, perhaps when the body dies,
the already conscious spirit will stay conscious

in matters of the destinic a good legacy is a good death
when you die, you die easy, got your work done

on _________, 2014, the play ________ by the great Afro American playwrite, August Wilson, was mounted at __________, this was the 10^th play in a series this Putlizer Prize winning artist had concepted in which he would do a play to represent the African American experience in every decade of the 20^th century, what he called the Pittsburgh cycle.  these 10 plays were each acclaimed as masterpieces and this one, was the last in the series.  he died _______ days before it was mounted, he may not have seen it but he knew he had achieved his lifegoal as an artist, this man was blessed

the death of a loved one should be a moment of celebration, not one of despair,

love is not reflected in expensive ostentatious funerals but in reflection and rememberance
the transition to ancestership, we are but the dreams of those who have come before us,

when you young you dont concern yourself with death.  everything functioning good,
aint had no close brushes, nobody close to you has died, it just does not compute

but in time, important folk in your life are gone, critical bodyparts dont work quite
right no more, youve had a couple of close brushes, a little damage here and there,

you realize how fragile life is, that you could check out at any minute,
you get a little more serious about life, about making it count

testimony: doris jean Austin:  every book finished makes it easier to die.

the key to a good death is a good life, spend your life wisely,, devoted to a cause greater
than self, the only acceptable sacrifice is one called upon for the good of the whole

there are many deaths in the span of a lifetime, sometimes you must leave the old you behind

the dinka master of the spear does not fear death - when a master knows that death is near
he asks to be buried alive, speaking his last words seated in his grave

the people rejoice, singing that the master of the spear has been taken into the earth

but what of megadeath, death not of your choosing, earthquakes, volcanos, floods and war,
babies & seniors, the wise & the fools, the poor, the wealthy, the halt, the lame & the beautiful  - 

the universe is no respector of worth, when the planet shifts in search of its own equanimity folk suffer,
when universes shrug, planets die  -  waste not heart w/why me - position yourself for the comeback

 no blame

but when you know death is upon you compose yourself for a good transition, one infused
with the dignity you have brought to your life, this will be your greatest conjuration

it is done,o traveler
let it go

 

 

MONDAY 9/22

trying to get back into groove of doing this blogging thing
im just so under the gun, schoolhouse got me humping

just barely keeping up w/weekly story reads, much less
the 2 undergrad novel manuscripts i got to read

glad to say i been maintaining production
mojo redux has 9 movements:

the book of invocations
the book of flowers
the book of initiations
the book of craft
the book of hoodoo
the book of sruggle
the book of game
the book of divinations
the book of grace

in the last two weekends ive done cleanup up to the book of game
which is going to be an easy one session deal

then the book of divinations, which is going to be a buggerbear -
couple of weekends probably, and the book of grace, about

8 pages, nothing to it, endgame closure, one session
then start the whole process all over until its clean

could have got thru game this weekend but as it is

i hit mondays behind and rolling full court, not only that i got
2 gigs this week, and a presentation to board funded my holybook

presentation at 9, miceres orature class at 12 (full performance plus lecture)
grad workshop at 5 - for which i need to do my written critiques

and the ones from last week which remain undone
also need to prepare for undergrad critiques tomorrow

and it would be nice to work on rdocs traveling medicine show
as part of grant and signed up with network solutions to 

build a website for rootwork press, ($1000) an org which  does not exist
i figure that would force me to knock that into gear, got a month to make

that happen, was going to pull out todays redux excerpt for you
but i got to go - i can hear that clock ticking tick tock

feel like im swimming underwater tick tock

have not heard from agent about my novel
i suspect she does not consider it a priority

patience puppy, i tell my students all the time
once you send it in, put it out your mind

move on to the next project, in the literary life
everything takes longer than you think it should

1st thing a writer learns, well, right
after discipline, is patience

all my love

rdoc

 

 

 

SUNDAY 9/14

 

 extract:1:3M:thebookofcraft

there are times, fleeting moments, when youve been strong, discplined, productive
or when youve written a really good passage/piece, or participated in an historically

significant moment when you are aware of yourself as historical
epochal.  mythical.  history in the flesh

there are times when you have placed yourself so preicisely in the
historical continiums center of balance that you are aware of being

a godforce, a focal point of reality and illusion, a nexus of generational possibility
conjuring reality into being thru the sheer force of your will, your work, your

craft and your game

if you pull it off your vision, your works will be studied & modeled in the hearts
& aspirations of generations to come, to the extent that your works are pertinent

to those generations, to that extent are you immortal

immortal

--------- 

a passage from mojo redux, my current project, not quite sure how to define it
let me see if i can do it quick, its a revision of mojo rising, an extensive revision

7th movement is the book of dvination

which is going to be the structural framework for
the hoodoo book of flowers, this is like nonfiction

straight up sacred text, the hoodoo book of flowers
is going to be a novel based on the framework of

the book of divination, hopefully that makes it clear
im start using passages from it, im gone, i feel so

underwater, thats why i havent been posting
1st it was china and everything was under lockdown
but i got used to being off the grid and been triyng to

get rest for the weary to agent (done deal)

and then i worked on rickydocs traveling medecine show
this full court performance piece im trying to mount

and then i got going to mojo redux, did drafts of both it
and rest for the weary in china, i maintained production

im proud to say,speaking of maintaining production
i got to go

all my love