rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

weary in my bones

hello world
i will be thru wiuth draft sometime today
there are days i love it, days i hate it
want to abandon it
but i know you cant rolllike that
it still needs another hit or two
but ima put oit down address
student stuff thats been
lanquishing

maybe up mt PT
still witing for pathology report

im not really feeling an account
i m tired and im weary

be safe

showtime

on holybooks & sacred lit -  word AI by rdoc

finished 2nd draft, about all i can say
is that its better than the 1st one

i need to hit it a couple of times
to bring it into minimal viability
but i am thoroughly sick of it now

ima do something else
that film of stax performance

and turning memoir into
string of hoodoo wisdom stories
on a sufi wisdom tale model

that intrigues me

mostly cause i have no idea
of how its going to work
the idea scares me

goody goody

TGS 010323

(TGS -the griot shop, missives to my crew
i been fey on them, sayinf stuff i would have
saved for later in the process)


witchqueen of lower broadway - word AI by rdoc

------------   

Hello all 

so okay, clearly im fey, it’s the zone talking
hopefully I will chill, quit inundating you

but I have noted, you may not, that my commo
with you and in life has begun to reflect my wisdom
studies, desperately reaching for ever elusive wisdom

okay I expected this, which is why I chose to study wisdom
I have for years now been immersed in the intense study
of wisdom both in ancient texts and modern textbooks
for years now I have been pondering wisdom in my life

words work and actions

or more accurately the lack of wisdom

for years now I been pondering how to
evolve hoodoo as a wisdom tradition
seeding a body of sacred literature

and I can see it starting to manifest
that’s why I chose it as my subject

you grow into what you choose to write about
that’s how both art and magic Work

you create this world in your head
and you live with it for years
you become what you write about

so you got to choose carefully
cause you working with
with what one writer called
‘the deep dark unfaceable’

it will cost you

got to constantly work yourself
keep yourself steady
this is a perilous path
it require conscious soulcare
got to keep your head right
n keep your hoodoo eye open

there is the conjure in hyatt who say:

my study everyday is to know you when you
walk in my door better than you know yourself

in all my critical commos with you I have
prioritized character character character

anything you got to say in fiction got to
be thru complex characterization

(rdocs iron law of char: char got to be more complex than just
enuf to get thru the scene -  this is an inviolate law)

what I love about being a writer is that
the human condition is my field of play

if I was a carpenter I’d get good at hitting nails
as a writer I get good at understanding people
at understanding the human dynamics in play around me
and being able to articulate the nuances of it
in service of the greater good

and in working on a book of wisdom I have
developed a vocabulary of wisdom that will
be reflected in subsequent works

being a writer you grow deep
in the doing
and you choose the direction
thru what you choose to write

one more point, I expect you all
to be working with both hands,

fiction and / or poetry

and creative nonfiction

if you got something to say, you do it
thru nonfiction so you don’t be trying
to preach in your fiction / poetry

I once told aisah Rahman, I want to be
the greatest novelist ever was
she said no art, you want to sing your
song the best you can

that way you can appreciate
other folk singing theirs

she also said you don’t want to be a novelist, art
you want to be a writer, you want to do it all

it was queen mother ree ree

marie brown, whom you all should know of
told me I should do nonfiction to tide me over
while working on novels that took a decade

and be my vehicle for my teaching &
preaching, which will destroy fiction

we call her the queen mother of black literature
even tho she aint really old enuf to be a queen mother
she IS the acknowledged queen mother of afroam lit

queen mother ree ree
cause of her service

google her when you get aa chance
you need to be as knowledgeable
as sophisticated as possible
about the dynamics of modern lit

in particular the african american literary world
you need to know of marie brown,

when you get a chance google her - marie brown, editor
marie brown carried black literature on her sturdy back

for generations. -  that little office on lower broadway and
Houston which was the beating heart of black lit for generations

the stories it could tell
queen mother ree ree

google will tell you what history got to say about her
but let the old griot drop a marie brown story on you

marie kept a whole stable of young black wroiters alive
by having them read over the transcom works
we used to call it over the transcom when writer ptch their works unsolicited
in the even older days offices had a little window for air
on top of the office and writwers would pitch their manuscripoots
'over the transcom' and run, hoping somebody in house recognize genius
thats how i got to dutton w/1st novel actually but thats another story
so marie one of the only black agents accepting unsolicited manuscripts
id go down to her offr and there would be a stack of 100 manuscipots
she paid 25 dollar for reader reports?
id take 8, burn thru them in a coiuple of days
come back get 8 more
i lived off that gig
and whats even better reading all those manuscripts exposed
me to so many aspects of black life i would not have ot
you goo down to mriers off and everybody in afro am lit
wou7ld be there hanging out, talking shit, having fun
and organizimng
so much going on mariuie hd two offices right across from each other
and the other office was her quiet space
but she spent thousands and thousands on folk
who didnt have a chance in hell and one day i asked her why
why marie, they dont have a clue
and she said you and i, art, here in the city
we can find whatever we need to be writers
all they have is me

all they have is me

chokes me up just writing it
my heart is so full

queen mother ree ree
i have known the legends
of our times
and they are even greater in person
than the world will ever know

yall be safe