rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

back in the saddle

WEDNESDAY

2 am and crunching it, had a strange day productionwise
took bonnie to hospital for testing, ambulance, whole bit
worked on manuscript while at hospital, got a lot done

almost a whole section redpenned but no nap, i was a
zombie whole evening, just now woke up and got back
to work so it was productive but does not appear to be so

im inputting yesterdays redpen into text now

also in chaos of morning, couldnt find 3M so working on 4M, im all
out of sequence, i will let you know when i catch up to where i am???

also a note i want to make, this is really a strange groove im in
i am really working hard on compacting this text, 800+ pages

is way too many, i want this cut by more than half to about 300
so one of the things im cutting is when its just self help pablum

but whats real wisdom and whats just words, so im very
consciously judging which words are true wisdom

worth keeping, which words are true words of power - and then
im kind of amazed at my faith in words to transform people

was talking to george hunt about the images and he was saying dont
drive yourself so hard when i told him im trying to clock 9 beats a day

and i tried to explain to him thats my only mode when im crunching it, it
gets me where i need to be, it makes books happen and reasonable dont

and i should have said i been working on this piece some 40 years now
off and on and counting earlier iteration: black power, the will and the way

to be weeks from a viable draft, one i can actually
leave behind w/o embarrassment, and expect it to
do what i need it to do is intoxicating, also i could

keel over any minute, stroke, accident, heart attack
whatever, i will feel so much better about life when its done

then i can get back on my novel
and do it too, then i can die easy

im much more conscious of my mortality these days, & this
arthritic thumb make me more conscious of my fragility

between left hand shaking and right hand thumbless
there are days when i am unable to type, something i
do 12 to 20 hours a day (any wonder hands giving out)

im very conscious now i got a limited shelf life left
i remember doris jean once saying, every

book done makes it easier to die

thats kinda where my head is these days
hopefully 10 good productive years left, maybe 15,
maybe a little as 5, maybe 5 minutes, quien sabe

so many of my buddies have checked
out i feel like im on borrowed time now

im looking for a good death now
a got my work done death

(was just thinking, this beat is one i need to work on
jubilation t highjohn in novel, a good death . . . )

im gone, i got pages need
clocking, all my love

rdoc


 

TUESDAY, 1:22 am  3M:19 youth

okay somehow someway im clocking a movement a day
thats 9 beats a day, which is brutal pacing but it
will give me a draft in 9 days, a week basically, the
amazing part is im actually doing it, though im

having to slide over a couple of rough patches
lets see what tomorrow does, 3 in a row means
9 is good to go, i keep expecting to fumble

theoretically i should only count to midnight
but since im coming in a couple hours past
every night its still a 24 hour period so im good

its that last 3 or 4 hours that i get desperate
to make the cut and go above and beyond

im reeling tired but ima start right now on
todays and see if i can get a little cushion
before i pass out for the night


MONDAY 5:48am 2M:13; fortitude

altogether i clocked 7 beats yesterday
if i get 7 today thats my new norm . . .

6 hours into the next day kinda fudged it but
i will accept it, its got the days work done

on a certain level its kinda discouraging
i was here a month ago, looking at the
long grind ahead of me but this draft
is diff, this draft my voice coming thru
this draft is actually singing

SUNDAY  11:50 am: finished my 1st movement

ima take a break and see how deep i can
get into 2nd, so far ive done 4 today, i
sure would like to clock a 9


8:52 am, here we go again, another draft,

this will be the clean one, then a poetry draft
and im done till novel done, took a week off
it seems and now im back in the saddle

5 a day will give me a draft in 2 weeks, which is ok
but what i want is 9 a day which is like 1 week
if 5 comes easy to me ima kick it up a gear
i feel guilty im not engaged in resistance
to trumps bat shit crazy bullshit

but i am so tired of futilely railing into the darkness
got to do something might really make a difference

i refuse to get caught up in responding to his crazy moves
my job is to get ahead of his game and thats what im doing

i aint coming off the longgame for trumps bullshit
i feel guilty though and will make up for it this fall

right now im in the woodshed
and thats where i will stay

rdoc

applying for a another nysfa

that 7000 will pay down a lot of credit card debt
sent in my 1st and last movement, godhead
nysfa has been a lifesaver in the past, lets do it again

so anyway, they ask for a work statement
excerpt statement and a cultural statement

i dont think they will be unhappy w/m
publishing my statement on my blog
i dont want to give them any reason
to say no on me:

starting to feel guilty about being so divorced
from the tragedy of trump but im in the woodshed

driven in part by his ascendency, let me get my
work done and i will get back in the saddle in the fall

--------------------   

NYSFA WORK SAMPLE

The Hoodoo Book of Flowers is my attempt to write an AfricanAmerican sacred text.  Originally conceived as a wouldbe Afroam holybook, I now think of it as a griotic text patterned on African epic traditions.  It is structured as a book of divination in 81 movements representing life as initiation.  It is also a hoodoo training manual for the hoodoos of the future, an attempt to train them to high magic over the folk magic that currently defines hoodoo. I have tried to use fictional technique to insure that my sacred text is not a boring read, as so many of them are, by telling it through a narrative storyline using the mythic Highjohn the Conqueror, first mythworked as a returning culture hero by Zora Neale Hurston. A major concern of the text is do I speak for black people, as I was trained, or do I speak for all humanity, which is a more evolved posture but leaves blackfolk leaderless. Since it’s has been a tension I have not been able to fully resolve I have allowed that tension to shape the text while advocating a vision of humanity’s eternal struggle to evolve, to be greater than we are.



EXCERPT EXPLANATION

Of the 81 movements in the text, I decided to give you the 1^st one (consciousness) and the last one (godhead). There are 81 beats in 9 major movements representing different challenges of life as initiation. The 1^st four movements are Living Life Well movements, Initiation, Lifeworks, Struggle and Changes.  The 2^nd grouping are political movements, Service, Empowerment and Destinywork. My 3^rd grouping is my Illuminated set, Ilumination and Irie Grace. Though in broken lines, what I’m calling griotic poetry, I consider it a prose work of creative nonfiction. It’s based on the epic works of African griotic (storyteller) traditions.  The fragmented, apparently nonlinear, style reflects how I think future generations will process ideas. My attempt to maintain the primacy of literature in a media age. Trying to create a work that will stand the test of time and evolve w/the interpretations of future generations.  A work that will grow as needed. The narrative strategy is segmented fusions of precepts, wisdom stories and historical/destinical beats inspired by Galeano’s Memory of Fire trilogy.  They are intended to convey a wisdom tradition structure and be a divine history of the world told through a narrative lens of African American history, culture and destiny.

CULTURAL STATEMENT

I am a practitioner of literary hoodoo in the griotic school of African American literature.  I was trained by Babajohn Killens, the great griot master of Brooklyn. Hoodoo is traditionally a folk magic system, part of a family of Afrospiritual retentions in the America.  The others, Vodou, Santeria, etc, are conventional religious systems, but African culture was repressed harder in the US and the African Way of God took root here as folk magic. Around the turn of the 20^th century African American writers started using hoodoo as literary ground, starting with Chestnutt’s Conjure Womans tales thru the works of Zora Neale Hurston and Ishmael Reed. I am attempting, with this work, to reform and illuminate the hoodoo tradition, move it from a folk magic to a high magic tradition while using it to reform and illuminate African American culture in an act of cultural custodianship and political redemption - a standing trope of the griotic school of African American literature.  From my studies with the Babajohn I was trained that the cultural role of the committed artist and ideological orchestrator is shaping generations. Fiction is my heart but fiction suffers if you use it to attempt direct influence.  My best shot at generation work in my limited time on the planet is to try to write an African American holybook. A good holybook would shape many generations, one hopes even a middling holybook will suffice

finished my draft

SUNDAY

finished my draft but obviously i have issues
there were these two books i wanted to read
so finished i figured i had time to read them

still have to do a couple of poetry drafts to polish
figured a litmited research wouldnt hurt

12 steps to a compassionate life by karen armstrong
silence the word and the sacred by

so what did i do, i also picked up:

the bible by karen armstrong
post modern use of the bible by mcknight
problem of religious language
forms and techs of alturistic and spiritual growth
kingshp and the gods
the great transformation by k armstrong
supernatural selection: the evo of religion
divine kingship in ghana and ancient egypt
speaking of god in figures and narrative
living religions and a world faith
moral wisdom and good lives
death, afterlife and the soul
how religions evolve
the science of compassionate love
the future of religious leadership

what is my problem

insead of chilling a couple of
weeks, im still under the gun

knowledge is fucking infinite
best ima be able to do is

scan these, i refuse to actually
try to read all these in one month

 

 

 

4m: 4th movement: the changes

SUNDAY 10:09

im on 77, 4 to go, i will be done today
then ive got about 25 pages of notes
mostly extractions that go somewhere
else than where they were, today or
tomrrow lates im done

woke up this orning concerned
ddint do anyting yesterday, 9 left
and that close to done i started
being concerned it wont be the
great work i have strived for

and i was like afraid to finish it
and finally be forced to face i
just dont have it in me

this last movement is my god movement
irie grace, do i even have that sensibiity

in me, its a lean segment but i feel
like ivespent a whole book laying
foundation, at this point i should be
able to dance on the edge

so anyway, damn near
done, and so on it goes

 

WEDNESDAY 11:08 PM

working on 64:vision
ive lost track of how many i did today
but i suspect it was 5 or 6 or more

almost 300 pages of text and
when i read thru it irs real text now

one redpen and it will be viable
two redpens and it im done

that said i could probably spend
rest of year cleaning it up but that
is just not going to happen, im done

WEDNESDAY 18TH 11:21

61:prophecy, im deep in the zone
had to abandon 5 and 6, i burnt
myself out and now i do a couple
and im in need of a nap, im still
ahead of the game, i had 50
scheduled for today

wont make the 20th but my
original deadline of the 30th
still good and going for 20th
mean ima be thru about the
24th, something like that

maybe do my 1st redpen by 30th
if this structural revision took a month
a redpen should take about 2 weeks

im gone, i figure i bore you with all
these process calculations but a
great part of my life is strategizing

production, how do best i spend my
day getting pages clocked, i assess
production process constantly

in my youth i could depend on brute strength
now i need maximum bang for minimum buck

 

MLK DAY MONDAY  10:43

took a nap, feel like a new man
i had reached that point of weary
where you sitting there but you
not doing nothing but nodding off
and its like your brain just refuse
to work so i gave up about 8 and
went back to bed, i had worked
about 3 hours but it was weak
work, where brain not really
working and you more spinning
your wheels and i feared i was
tapped out but now im ready to go . .


SUNDAY  12 midnight

50: solidarity, i dont know how many ive done
im dizzy tired, did more work because transcribed
20 pages of notes most of morning, sludgework
whole push feels like sludgework at this point

im burnt out but ima take a break and
come back, ive done 51 scitech, so if
i do 50 i will be on 52 and that feels
better, i will have done 7 instead of 5

thats what im talking about

god help me im weary though
how much longer i can maintain
this pace i do not know . . .

 

 

SATURDAY 11:59

45:governance, woulda been #6
but im wore out tired, ima still try
i got a burning desire to make my
daily grind, i been fudging a couple
of hours past midnight to make my
6s but thats cool, a 24 hour period

and my sliding into home every night
means im in my groove, just barely
making it, 3 was too easy, meant i
wasnt pushing myself to the limit
at his rate i will be thru in 6 days
no way i can keep up this pace
but we will let it play out and see

ive moved into an entirely different
headset, my playa movements, service
empowerment and destinywork
then my last two, illumination
and ire grace, my godwork
will be another headset

im tired as i can be
but i got 5, wasnt 6
but i aint complaining

and the clock aint stopped, not
until i just pass the fuck out

 

SATURDAY  12:36PM
42:strategic posture  1st 3 set


SATURDAY 1:32am

39:community, caught up
did 6 today, 5 a day will
no longer do it, 6 will . .
might have to accept 3s
3 i can handle, today i
drove myself kinda hard
im dizzy tired, can i take
this pace day after day
i dont know . . .

tomorrow will tell the tale
will it be a 6 or will it be a 3
6 is now my bar, i know i
can do 6, can i do it daily
is the question, tomorrow
i will know, im gone . .

still have not hit 40
still going uphill . .

SATURDAY  1215am

on 39: community but ive run out of
time and energy, but that mean im
only one behind schedule now, i
made up a 2 deficit today, im good
if i get this one done before i go
to bed ima count that as full 3 . . .

FRIDAY THE 13TH

12:38, just finished yesterdays 3
and am now on 5M:37:stewardship

im caught up w/plenty of time to
get todays 3 done, but this means
i can surely clock 5s, we will see . ..

today i will bust 40, which is a big plotpoint
out of 81 movements, 40 is halfway, from
today on i will be on the downstroke . .

all praises to the most high . . .

---------------   

4M: 4^TH MOVEMENT: THE CHANGES

changes are inevitable, the only rule that
does not change is that everything else will
take advantage of the flux, rootwork the changes
embrace the forces of the cosmos in order that
you can successfully ride and finesse

4^th movement: seasonal 28) rebirth thru 29) mojo power and 30) ital health in 31) journeys
seasoned by 32) time and 33) knowledge 34) positioned thru 35) growth into 36) transformation

28         rebirth:
            in you o lord I trust
            every death rebirth

29         mojo
            here I am o god, bring
            the mojo down on me

30         health: 
            hear me dear lord, let everything I do
            be healing true, let all I touch be ital

31         journeys:
            dear lord, watch over my journey
            forth, come see me safely home

32         time:
            come o god, from killimanjaros peak, emplace me in
            the great flow of time, come o god and make it mine

33         knowledge:
            dear god of mine, bless my quest for knowledge, let
             my knowledge be worthy, knowledge folk can use

34         duty:
            give me the the strength, my god, to do
            my duty and the wisdom to do it well

35         growth
            come dear god, come, I listen, I hear,
            I see, from all things I grow in grace

36         transformation
            o my dear god, come walk with me,
            prepare my soul for what is to come

get the draft

FRIDAY MORNING, 1:05 am

well now that ive opened the door
god just walking all over my text
now i find myself looking for
places to do godwork in the text . .

what happened is those prayers were much stronger
than the pedestrian version, i could feel their power
in a way alien to the other version, you aint never
knowed me to turn my back on power

basically this mean i got to recalibrate
i hate recalibrating but you have to follow
the text when it grows you got ot grow along

with it, and follow where it leads, thats where
you get the literary magic going

might be why i didnt do not a lick
of work yesterday - reclibrating

just didnt have it in me, a rainy
breezy warm day, just the kind
i like to lie there in bed reading

w/god throwing rain on my bald head
and basically thats what i did

saw me throw god in there
this an interesting development

guess ima count yesterday as my day off
ma try to make up ground today, just did
34:duty got 2 to go, then do todays 3

if i just maintain my daily 3 and work
sunday i will be caught up

steady does it, rick, you can do this . .
i day off does not the hammer break . ..

 

THURSDAY ADDENDUM

intersting development, working on 34:duty,
when i write the following line:

I ask help, dear god of all things, universal guidance,
not for myself but those for whom I bear responsibility

appears now that ive broken thru the prayer
barrier i will be addressing god thruout text
instead of just in the chosen spots

as i do with all speculated developments
i try it, see how it works, if it dont work i
accept the diversion, its all process . . .

THURSDAY THE 10TH  6 am

got my 33 but am no longer elated
its just a grind now

i feel like john henry driving steel
or that death scene in amadeus

im running out of steam but i
got to keep pushing thru

exhaustion, the words coming harder
and im accepting a level of raw as done
that i would have sneered at earlier

got a couple of sections they not bad
but they not strong, and i kept going . .

deep im having to do what i have to
tell my students to do, just let it be bad

keep going, get the draft
you dont know what you have
till you got that draft

all my love

rdoc

a little godwork goes a long way

okay, let me see if i can explain what happened this morning
in my work i avoid a lot of godwork, i cant work with that

anthropomorphic god that you cajole and plead and submit to,
just cant work with it, got a more flexible concept of god the
universe, god the way, in the text i basically refer to the godhead
as the great mojo,

but i still want the power of god that folk lean on in times
of need, i want my divinity and i want to eat it too

also, as a high magician and ideological orchestrator, i lean
more to iching than bible in sense of this is not a hymn to god
but more a manual on how to be a superior personality, how to
live an illuminated life, so i avoid too much praying in the text

another objection is referring to god as 'lord' is clearly
a holdover from when peasants addressed nobles so

that offend me, but its been embedded into
folks souls to point now where i got to use it
for the word/soul power that it bring

my working w/god may offend some of you but me
and god got an understanding, i have been given a
dispensation to break old ways and forge new ones,

i am a prophet of the hoodoo way

the other thing you need to know is that im trying to sanctify
certain ancestral haints as high haints (saints, loa, orisha, et al)
so at the beginning of each passage i have a 'prayer' to that
high haint in context of that passage, ie tubman for journeys:

come, lady tubman, come
see me safely home

but then i think how im diluting all those prayers by giving
them to the haints instead of to god, so i think what about
that little outline in front of each of my 9 moments, do the
prayer there, before i had these little homilies not much

different from what i have in the text, now i have prayers
and its much stronger, a little godwork wont hurt me

ima show you an example of what i mean
this is from 3rd movment: lifeworks
first the new one, then the old version

also im trying to degender god, sometimes
i use she, sometimes queenmother,
dont know if thats gon work either, 21st
century sensibility i got to try

im telling you its all in a state of
confusion, just keep driving thru, rick,

trust in the great mojo
trust the way

 ----------------------------   

19 youth: 
      I am fully alive in a world of wonder, open
     my eyes, dear god, show me the way

 20   family: 
      come  o lord, and bring the
      family, on this rock I stand

21   education: 
      teach me god, what I need to know, lift the veils
      from mine eye, show me how, show me why

22   work: 
      o come here lord, let me
      hear that hammer ring

22   love: 
      o dear god, dear lady of love
      come love, come bless my soul

24   finance: 
      just enuf dear god for my needs and those I love, come let
     the money flow, lord, money used wisely is money blessed

25   maturity: 
      o dear god,voice of maturity and font of
      wisdom, once again you must lead the way

25   eldership
      come queenmother, mother god of us all, dues been
      paid on wisdom and grace, eldership is your blessing

27   death: 
      dear god, I listen, I learn, I live
      forever in de geas or rickydoc

 
okay and this is the old version
new one much stronger, what
could i do, im gone, got pages
need clocking

lifeworks

19   youth:  in your youth be conscious, it is in the beginning that paths are laid
23   family:  your greatest weakness, your greatest strength - be the answer
20   education:  lifelong learning makes everything is a lesson – evolve
21   work:  work hard work smart - good work habits bless every endeavor
22   love:  its all love – embrace it
24   finance:  respect money, earn it in grace, leverage it wisely
25   maturity:  in your maturity be a force - a player in the arena
26   eldership: in your eldership be a model, a teacher, a font of earned advice – strategos
27   death:  death be not dismayed, graduation comes to us all - demoja

a life worth living

TUESDAY ADDENDUM

on 30, back on schedule, which means ive done 4 so
far, with time to do 5 (8:33pm) ive decided if im going to
be done by the 20th ima have to abandon pacing, ima
have to go full force, 2 weeks full force, i can do that

once again let us separate the writers from
the dilettantes, this the kind of shit i live for
 

TUESDAY

okay, 7:33 am and just finished 26: death, loat ground yesterday
thought to do longhand, didnt, finally went back to computer, did
but only now finished yesterdays lick, now i got to do todays 3

but if i pull that off, 5 for today, that means i can do 5, i got
to step up my game if i can, two reasons, one that flyer on
top there, highjohn the conqueror aint got notning on me

im irked they didnt ask me to write something for that catalogue
im irked i aint acknowledged the baddest hoodooman ever been

the hoodoo world dismiss me cause i dont do folk hoodoo
the art/literary world dismiss me cause its like some sort of curse
god has laid on me to keep me hungry, keep me grinding

im going and it will be like when i go to literary gatherings and im
not getting no play but inside i know i am a writer of stature, one
of the best  (at least i think i am, havent had much reinforcement
from world but i still believe) so anyway ima go but ima go with

a well hidden attitude, but i would feel so much stronger if
i have finished my draft, 21st is like 12 days, talk about

impossible, i dont even know if 5 will do it, lets see
im on 27 now: 12 times 5 a day will actually do it and
still get a day or two off, wouldnt that be nice

to be able to drop a clean draft off with the
babajohn then go to the hoodoo gathering
strong and confident and magnanimous

amongst my people, my regulators, even if
they dont know it yet, wouldnt that be nice

o well, aint nothing but a try
if i fail i fail, that much closer

to an endgame, i do little production
tricks all the time, trick myself
into another gear, im shameless

this came from this mornings work, excerpt from
27:death, im thinking ima put a piece up every day,

all my love - rdoc

-----------------  

did I ever tell you about the time the
queenmother of memphis captured death
 
that one day the baron come calling, hat in hand,

evening queenmother, he say, evening she say, mind if I take a seat, she nod and allow him on the porch, after pleasantries done he gets to the point, two, three hundred years now, he say, you making me look bad, the queenmother clear her throat, couple more things need doing, she say, be at ease baron, I will be there directly

so old man death, he bow and take his leave, last time he

tangle with the queenmother it cost him, she was midwifing a new baby she refuse to lose and she deny death passage thru her door, when he enter anyway as he is wont, he is quick quick caught up in a bind and she leave him there, he shoulda known better - the queenmother of memphis, she own the crossroads

at first humanity is pleased with this state of affairs, no death

but soon enuf the world was way too crowded and folk in need of release was signing online petitions and comatose elders was camping in her front yard murmuring let my people go

the queenmother note folk don't quest for immortality no more

child care down, art and charity both, folk no longer felt need to be good because well fuck we all immortal anyway

it appear there more tragedy in a world w/o death than there

is in one with it, 1^st she try to cut a deal, look here baron, what about you only take those deserve to die and the baron say that's everybody, this aint no punishment, this a graduation

I tell you what I will do, say the baron, those that accept

that moment of death, that find it in them to sing a good
death blues, I will make it easy for them, ultimate serenity

and so the queenmother of memphis set the baron free

cause a life w/o death is nota life worth living

 

john henry was a steel driving man

I suspect you've heard of big john henry, steel driving man,

born with a hammer in his hand, crying lord lord, hammer gon be the death of me, top steel driver on the B&O railroad, driving a tunnel thru big ben mountain when the day come bossman bought that steamdrill round and say we dont need no steel driving man on this line, steam drill drive more than any driver can, you all fired – but john henry say aint no steamdrill outdrive me, and the bossman bet him, well mr john henry, you beat this steamdrill, you all get to stay

so its big john henry and that steamdrill driving thru big ben mountain

its mountain dust finally kill a steam driver and between one stroke and the next john henry feel his breath falter but o no, no no, aint gon be known as the man got beat down by no machine and john henry get to swinging two hammers, one in each hand, ringing like silver, shining like gold and bam he break thru, put a hole in that mountain big as a steel drivers heart, smile pretty for the people, john henry, but his hammer hit the ground, still in his hand, and he look like he resting but he stone cold dead, im told his wife caught that other hammer midswing and finish the beat cause pollyanne drove steel like a man, lord lord, pollyanne drove steel like a man

THE COUNTDOWN, DO OR DIE

MONDAY


been averaging 1 a day, 1 a day will take 3 months
that wont do, 3 a day will take a month, so be it

whats the point of having a deadline that aint impossible
impossible deadlines what force you into the zone

production schedule, 3 a day, 1 day a week off, just did
todays 3, encouraging, on schedule a good way to start

once you get your daily grind you can do whatever you want
more text, research, revision, tv, exercises, taxes, rub the cat

come on rick, you can do this, a month of focus, product at end
of it, once again let us separate the writers from the dilettantes

showtime . . .

jan 2:   9         09: purpose    3:24pm   (lets get this party started)
jan 3   12       12: blueswork  5:34   (so far so good, weak product, faith)
jan 4    15      15: fortune     11:58   (just barely - if 3 good, go for 5??)
jan 5    18      18: victory       4:27   (forget 5, 3 will do, pace yourself)
jan 6    21      21: education  9:23   (maintaining w/cushion)
jan 7    24      24: love           6:33   (30 days rick, sun day off)
jan 8 sun (in da zone, might try 4 but already weary at end of day, 3 works)

jan 9      27    26: eldership ?? (tried longhand, fell 1 behind, catchup time)
jan 10    30    30: healing 8:31 (back on schedule, get ahead of game)
jan 11    33
jan 12    36
jan 13    39
jan 14    41
jan 15 sun

jan 16    44
jan 17    47
jan 18    50
jan 19    53
jan 20    57
jan 21    60
jan 22 sun

jan 23    63
jan 24    66
jan 25    69
jan 26    72
jan 27    75
jan 28    78
jan 29s   81