The Life and Times of William Dockery

"Art is a selective recreation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value judgements" -Ayn Rand

"Nothing unreal exists." -Kiri-kin-tha (First Law of Metaphysics)

William Abraham Dockery (born May 7, 1958) is an American poet, minicomic artist, performance poet, and singer-songwriter, usually working in the Sprechgesang ("spoken singing") and Sprechstimme ("spoken voice") form, musical terms used to refer to an expressionist vocal technique between singing and speaking.

Shadowville Speedway audio

Endorsements

 * "In my opinion Will Dockery is easily one of the most authentic American poets around. A real coffeehouse poet who is not scared of mingling some real American elements such as country music into his poetry." ~Martijn Benders


 * "...The Shadowville All-Stars and their insane menagerie of pickers, strummers, drummers, bangers, trumpeters, trombonists, chanters, singers, freaks, faux-Indian dancers [...] colorful costumed cacophony of chaos that rolled from the [...] stage out to the performance area and up the hill to the kitchen and on out over the pond before it dissipated into the ether…”~Katy Clyde, ChattyHoochee Mama


 * "I like Will as a person. And I think his music is better than 9/10s of the stuff I (over)hear on the radio these days... 'Rag Picker Joe' was running through my head for over a week after my last listen." -Michael Pendragon, poet and philosopher


 * "Will Dockery's voice is unique and fantastic to me in a Spacerock context, some ambient type Spacerock is a riff that builds and changes sometime ever so slightly and is hypnotic. Psychedelic/Spacerock is not for everyone, Will always picks up on the flow of the song and slowly changes with us and spews a poetic beat vibe to it. The T.O.T.M. (Theatre Of The Mind) album will be a acquired taste, kinda like an Alien stew with weird stuff in it and unrecognizable shapes and textures. Or like a Alien child coming out of a human and the suprised looks on the family and medical staff as they realize that this ain't no ordinary baby. Basically this album is for the Lava lamp and the Colorwheels..." ~Brian Fowler


 * "...eclectic, imagery-laden, neo-beatific poems. Chain-smoking, spontaneously gesturing towards make-believe objects and addressing imaginary characters [...] gravel-throated limp, a rolling, bluesy romp in the swamp [...] pool halls, bridges, tragedies, lost love, relationships. " ~Larry Caddell, Columbus Community News (Jul 29, 2006)

The Life and Times of William Dockery
‎"I know that my true friend will appear after my death, and my sweetheart died before I was born." -Tanaka Katsumi (via Harlan Ellison)



Youth and Early Influences
"You must go down... to that shack outside La Grange..." -Z.Z. Top

William Abraham Dockery is the son of, a World War II and Korean War veteran, later a Howard bus and taxicab driver, and Mildred (Whitley). Dockery was born in La Grange, Georgia. a city in Troup County, Georgia, United States. It is named after the country estate near Paris of the Marquis de La Fayette, who visited the area in 1825. Dockery would visit La Grange frequently during childhood, it being the home of his maternal grandparents. He lived in Columbus, Georgia, 40 miles south of LaGrange.

La Grange Childhood
Seems like I remember passing by there, Lee Street, Hillside, the old mill area, with my Grandmother a few thousand times in the 1960s-70s. There was the LaGrange path, over to Big Apple straight up from Tatumville, then cut through those side streets over to Hillside where she'd pick up her and Grand Daddy's medicines. Pharmacist named Pat & the soad fountain lady with the amazing milkshakes & lemon sours. Then cut across through those streets to get back up to the main road. Made that trip literally 1000 times just as described above.

"Hey Will Dockery I am glad we can share those memories of the hometown.I couldn't find your comment but I know where you were talking about. I lost count at age 6 of the times I sat at that pharmacy with my school friends. I talked a lot about the hood on 'You know Your From LaGrange' page. My dance class, girl scout house, the 'Y' for piano, the library where we did our homework and last but not least the school and church we went to all within the same 5 or 6 blocks. Good times! ~Love Dana Dodd"

Hello Dana, yes, you probably even remember the lady at the counter at Hillside Pharmacy who made those great lemon sours, milkshakes, even some burgers and fries for the big spenders? She was the same lady there for a number of years, with Pat the Pharmacist in back kind of like a young W.C. Fields. I would always lurk at the comix spinner rack speed reading the new issues, which kind of irritated him but he never stopped me, like the guy at Rexal Drugs downtown would. Pat would just say "Oh, here comes Old Moneybags..." in a Jack Benny voice.



I did mention earlier that comic books did lead the way to quite a bit of poetry, as well as a lifelong love of and interest in world mythologies.

My first exposure to poems such as "Death Be Not Proud" and Frosts' "Fire and Ice" came from Stan Lee's use of them in his stories... we discussed this here in fact, and I could talk all night about it now.

Speaking of world mythology and related tracks of interest, as I walked the grounds of my Grandfather, next to my late Uncle's property this week, I thought of the fact that ancient people were based there, and probably was a site of Chattahoochee River based trading.

Hearn Road Tablet of La Grange

The Hearn Cuneiform Tablet The Hearn tablet was discovered in Georgia in 1963. It is a receipt for sheep and goats intended as sacrifice to the sun god Utu and the goddess Lama Lugal. The scribe, Enlila, states it was the 37th or 38th year of the reign of King Suigi of Ur, Sumeria. That dates this tablet to 2040 BCE, two years prior to the Chief Joseph tablet.

The Hearn tablet is made of lead, not clay. There are other lead pieces found on the Hearn property dated to the same time. So it would seem at least this tablet may have been created here in the Americas. Lead smelting and the need to create a receipt for goods exchanged, I would say, indicates a larger presence than just a handful of explorers.

The Hearn Road and farm is just across the road from my Grandfather's lad, and next to that, my late Uncle's property.

And this:

[Hearn Tablet

Mrs. Joe Hearn described how In 1963, while digging a new flower bed on her property in northwestern Georgia not far from the Chatahoochee River, her shovel had struck a small pillow-shaped tablet made of lead. Dr. Mahan thinks it had been made on the spot by the lost-wax method, as other irregularly shaped pieces of once molten lead with the same patina were also found on her property.

The Fall of Tatumville
"Jeeze... first grand daddy's house & now Tatum School. This is like the night they drove old Dixie down." -Will Dockery

On the outskirts of La Grange is Tatumville, with Will Dockery's grandfather's house torn down and soon the Tatum Elementary across the main road... it seemed like the night they drove old Dixie down.

"Seems big enough for something big there at the Tatum School lot. A lot of memories there although I only attended about two weeks in 1966. I had a dream that apartments were built on grand daddy's land across the street right at that drive way that leads to your house, Freddie﻿. The driveway led into the complex with buildings on both sides. Next to that was a sort of Hindu-Lottery-Gas Station and something like a pizza place. Not sure about the side where the shop was, nothing seemed to be there yet. This, of course leads to the main road and across the street is where Tatum School 'was'.Surreal yet realistic dream walkabout into the grim future. Which is now."

My Uncle Fred Whitley and Aunt Ruth Whitley.

Aunt Ruth is an inspiration to me, 85 years old and still cooks, cleans washes her own laundry, and in the words of her daughter, my cousin Jenny:

"Drives like a bat out of Hell."

Father of my Cousin Jenny, who you may remember as one of the stars of my "Apple Montage" poem.

[Uncle Fred and Aunt Ruth

[Fred Whitley obituary

Fred Whitley Sr. May 29 1930-December 20 2017. My Uncle on mother's side. — with Jenny Whitley Ledford, Gloria Whitley Duniphin, Mark Whitley and Freddie Whitley.

"And so it goes..." -Kurt Vonnegut

Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Muscogee county, Georgia, United States, with which it is consolidated. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 189,885. It is the principal city of the Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area, which had a 2011 estimated population of 301,439, according to the US Census. It joins with the Auburn, Alabama metropolitan area to form the Columbus, Georgia-Auburn, Alabama Combined Statistical Area, which had a 2011 estimated population of 466,089. It is the third largest city and fourth largest metropolitan area in the state, and also the 123rd largest city in the United States. Columbus lies 100 miles (160 km) south of Atlanta. Fort Benning, a major employer, is located south of the city in Chattahoochee County. The city is home to museums and other tourism sites. The area is served by the Columbus Airport. The mayor is Teresa Tomlinson, who was elected in November 2010. The city was ranked number 4 on the 100 Best U.S. Cities to live by Best Life Magazine.



Both areas, La Grange and Columbus, along with surrounding and connecting areas, meld into the alternate universe of Shadowville in his various works of art.



Will Dockery started playing music in 1961, when he got his earliest guitar, a Huckleberry Finn plastic wind-up.. This early phase in music was cut short, though, when he smashed the guitar over the head of his father, who was napping. He remembers he was emulating a scene he'd seen on an episode of the television series Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The Rifleman or another of the many television series of the western genre popular in that era.

"Yes, maybe I need to reword that story... I was so young I can hardly remember it happening. It probably wasn't as funny when it happened as the later stories told about it... I wish I could find the actual television scene or movie scene that inspired this, possibly Bonanza or Gunsmoke, which were on the air around the time I was born and in my early childhood."

The thing about movies that a young child may not understand (me) is that everything is fake on there, and the guitar was probably balsa wood or other substance meant to crumble easily. A good example of why children should be monitored about what television they are allowed to watch... at least dumb kids like I was.

Hank Williams was an early hero, especially after watching Your Cheatin' Heart, the 1964 film of Hank Williams' life story with George Hamilton playing Williams. This led to Young Dockery to learn more about Hank Williams. Hank Williams September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953), born Hiram King Williams, was an American singer-songwriter and musician regarded as 1 of the most important country music artists of all time. Williams recorded 35 singles (five released posthumously) that would place in the Top 10 of the Billboard Country & Western Best Sellers chart, including 11 that ranked number one.

One of Dockery's most vivid childhood memories was the sight of his powerful and stoic father in tears at the final scene of the Hank Williams movie, when Williams was revealed to have passed away in the back seat of the automobile that was transporting him to his next gig.



Young Dockery attended Waverly Terrace Elementary school, where he won 1st prize in kindergarden in a school-wide competition for a crayon drawing of a witch, obviously influenced by his early exposure to comic books and film noir, which everything on television resembled in the pre-color era of the 1960s.

The next year, in May of 1965, his family moved to the east side of Columbus, where he attended Edgewood Elementary school. There, he wrote his first poetry, influenced by reading Edgar Allan Poe and combining that with ideas influenced by popular music such as The Beatles.



Ed Sullivan & The Beatles on the TV next door

I love the Beatles too. Wish I'd have thought of that one. Thanks, George. Good times. Good lord, that is a great one, George... and time for a shout out across time and miles I've mulled for many years: Tina and Candace Cadenhead (ya'll who watched Ed Sullivan with me one night about 47 years ago), if either of you see this, yes I still remember! Let's talk of Michelangelo... On them {Tina & Candace), The Beatles, Edgewood Park, and other things.

Still looking for Candace and Tina (Tina seems to have worked in a carnival in the 1970s? Refs needed), for some updates and memories, and just because I wonder where they ever wound up, going from just outside my window to... not there. Candace Cadenhead in 1966

Note from Candace

I have faith in the powers of Google, and so it goes. I later found that Candace Cadenhead had passed away in 2010, Tina I still am looking for.



As the story goes, Dockery mowed grass for 3 weeks, skipped the comic books and other essentials, to save the cash for a copy of the Talisman of K-Mart, The White Album, where under those whitewashed covers, was sure to lurk the wisdom from Liverpool poets that would light the way for a, what... 9-year old child.



Everything from Dylan's Mister Jones to cursing Edgar Allan Poe to avoiding Sexy Sadie and other alternate universe icons waited within, just please pass those things by, or they'll make you cry... they'll make you blue:

Lennon asked Shotton about a playground nursery rhyme they sang as children. Shotton remembered: "Yellow matter custard, green slop pie,
 * All mixed together with a dead dog's eye,
 * Slap it on a butty, ten foot thick,
 * Then wash it all down with a cup of cold sick."

Because he was, we all are, you and I Am the Walrus... Goo Goo, doll