Sunday, May 4, 2008

still organizing and discovering

The reorganization continues. Making more headway. I am enjoying this leisurely time that is the border separating distinct periods of time, before I started this reorganization and afterwards. What I couldn't see and what I will be able to see.

What amazes me about the process is that I find old pieces of paper and I associate faces with the papers--a period of time that is associated with certain types of pain. Certain people helped me get through those times. Their faces flash in my minds eye like the names and images of soldiers that are displayed at the end of a movie.

I wonder what has happened to them. Are they ok? Did they get themselves out of the vicious cycle that most perpetually endure on Skid Row? or did they find the light and walk fearlessly toward it. I think about these men and women as I slowly put up the past and prepare for a new future

I am relaxed and I am learning how to relax more and more as each day comes and goes.

I have 100 more pages to go in the "Emperor of Ocean Park". More and more it resembles things in my life. Then it hits me. Usually with novels, I read the promotional lines from other critics and authors and decide if I am going to read the book. On this occasion I used the quotes from the critic as just an informational tool, not a promotional one. Once I saw that it involved an ivy league setting which contained other things of intimate knowledge I knew that I was going to read it.


Funny though, I am beginning to identify another concept that the critics did not mention or maybe they do not mention these things. This book is about transitions. Many transitions and how some of them can be traumatizing. I know a little bit about that kind of thing.

So I read leisurely this morning, procrastinating about cleaning the room. Oh yes, I mentioned the things I could not see before. Well, the c oncept about transitions is the kind of thing to which I am referring--the nuances, the subtleties. Those are the things that loom large in any topic or arena.

All morning long I kept hearing a man yell. He sounded like a hyena. It started at 7 in the morning and then after a while, he had an audience. He would scream and they would laugh. I must have forgotten. This is between the 1st and the 10th of the month. Everybody has checks. Everybody gets high and many people talk to themselves during the time frame. Never fails.
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My friend MIchael emailed me this morning. I was surprised to see it but it felt so good. Michael is a magician and he has helped me with so many things. He has created the attitude that things are going to be ok.
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Another friend emailed me. Hopefully she will enlightened me about the world of writing. It will be nice to have her friendship.

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Speaking of writing. Metropolis booksis having a poetry reading night. Wendy Arimah will be there along with others. Wendy is the Poet Laurete for downtownlalife.com. I would love to be there but I will be working. A man must do what a man must do.
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Well, I have lots of time left on the computer but I am going to leave. I want to enjoy this time on Sunday and stroll leisurely back to my room where I will continue my book and organization process. IT is really a rebirth process but I am sure you have gotten that by now.

I feel like I am getting ready for a big move. Clearing things out and making sure I only have to move a few things from day to day when I read, study or practice writing.

Gave some more things away. With each give away, I feel lighter.

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San Julian Street is very clean today. Usually, Sunday is the dirtiest day on Skid Row. Food is passed out graciously by donors but the recipients do not respect the street or the people that live on it. Thank God for OG, Jeff Page and the Skid Row Basketball League. They are there to clean everything up.

However, today, the LAPD is out and they are making sure the street stays clean. They are making sure, as much as they can, that people do not experience their monthly bout of mental illness by talking to themselves once they obtain their checks and by their rocks. The police do not look forward to the monthly ritual. The drug users live and some die for it. I saw a man being wheeled out of on a coroner gurney yesterday.

Some people just gather on the street to watch the show. I happen to have a front row seat of the most amazing thing.

I just turned south onto San Julian St, walking to my room.The street was packed and I stopped to speak to my friend Wesley who was standing in front of my building when he tapped me on the shoulder and pointed in a direction.

About 10 feet from us were two people--a man and a woman. 4 feet from the man stood two LAPD officers. The man was facing the officers. Suddenly the man reached in his pocket took out his crack pipe, put some crack on it and lit the pipe. He lit it right in front of the officers. I could not believe it. Wesley and I just turned and looked at each other.

Naturally, the police officers just stared at the guy. They were trying to figure out if they, indeed, saw what they thought they saw. They confirmed their suspicions when the guy blew out a cloud of smoke that invaded their nostrils.

They just told the man to turn around and they arrested him. The things I see on Skid Row.

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My Friend MIchael G. wrote me today. He and Stephen Carter finally have motivated me to resume the outlining of some constitutional law chapters. For some reason I grabbed that book and brought it down to Skid Row. I also have the Dred Scott Case book. IT is a huge paper back. Any body who thinks they know anything about Brown vs Board of Education better read that book.

Yes, I am preparing for something. What, I do not know. But, at least, it is beginning to enjoy the preparations.

good night world, I love you.

walter

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