https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox Pick a shelf and read. en-us 2023-07-04 15:39:47 UTC 2024-02-23 15:25:56 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-uploads.storage.googleapis.com/2083943957/16f1b6d47e0d4a5e5644845e8d8be360/WIN_20221002_12_49_28_Pro.jpg mpmyers4az https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2638085777 Gazing at Flowers (2016, December)]]> 2023-07-04 15:57:18 UTC https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2638085777 mpmyers4az https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2638086601 (2017, January)]]> 2023-07-04 15:59:32 UTC https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2638086601 mpmyers4az https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2638088355 An Odd Number of Role Models (2016, March)]]> 2023-07-04 16:04:44 UTC https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2638088355 mpmyers4az https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2638089012 Measure Twice (2016, April)]]> 2023-07-04 16:06:44 UTC https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2638089012 mpmyers4az https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2638104177 Dog-eared Journal (2016, December)]]> 2023-07-04 16:48:52 UTC https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2638104177 mpmyers4az https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2638104523 Childhood Games (2017, March)]]> 2023-07-04 16:49:53 UTC https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2638104523 mpmyers4az https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2638108924 2023-07-04 17:01:36 UTC https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2638108924 mpmyers4az https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2638110110 A Slap of the Windmill (2018, March)]]> 2023-07-04 17:05:21 UTC https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2638110110 mpmyers4az https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2638110606 Wheat Pennies (2017, December)]]> 2023-07-04 17:06:52 UTC https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2638110606 mpmyers4az https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2638729341 http://www.haibuntoday.com/ht131/TP_Myers_Up.html

Up in the Air (2019, March)


]]> 2023-07-05 10:47:31 UTC https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2638729341 mpmyers4az https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2649432080 2023-07-22 05:49:50 UTC https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2649432080 mpmyers4az https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2649441834 https://contemporaryhaibunonline.com/chohtmlarchive/pages154/Myers_Postmodern.html]]> 2023-07-22 06:49:58 UTC https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2649441834 mpmyers4az https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2653069271 Eight years and one pandemic later, this is the second time I've hiked up the paved path of Tumamoc Hill. In this calendar decade. I stopped to watch the sunrise about halfway up. Shortly thereafter, I saw the two mule deer.

I'm resting at the top of the hill and overhearing way more than a snippet. The gossip of humans talking about others who "just gossip".

"We're supposed to be a church that unifies not divides," said the speaker who is "very dissappointed" in the body of christ.

Going downhill, I'm mindful of my feet placement with the focus on stability. I don't trust my knees as much as I used to.

buzzing to my right
birdsong to my left
I recall
the silence
of mule deer

]]> 2023-07-30 08:04:13 UTC https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2653069271 mpmyers4az https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2653069895 2023-07-30 08:08:39 UTC https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2653069895 mpmyers4az https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2657039154
Young and bored, I suggested we climb a tree to traverse the roof of the cafeteria. We were often inside together, in line together, pushing our trays down the shiny metal path as we chose our items, but she would always turn down desert because she wanted to shed a few pounds. "Let me smell your brownie," she'd say. I always did. She said one-quarter of the flavor of food was inhaled. And I wanted to make her happy.

two peas in a pod
the sweet fragrance below
is gardenia bushes 

Between group session and lunch, the time seems to stretch too long, so we are relaxing on the slope, legs bent, feet flat and planted, pointing down on the slant and watching people come and go from the entrance of the residential building which is opposite the entrance to the cafeteria. A nurse comes directly out from the lobby flanked by flowering shrubs, hands on her hips, and looks up and says, "Mary and Rachel, you get down from there right now!"

Surprised, I look at my friend with anxiety for getting us caught. She's grinning and pointing to the windows of the two story building across the parking lot. She always likes a good joke.

whirled peas
shelled and exposed
empty colander]]> 2023-08-07 05:49:15 UTC https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2657039154 mpmyers4az https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2657044119 Sailing alone around the room
like a stranger in a strange land
of mice and men,
I found that I am the cheese
in the valley of the dolls and...

that is the trouble with poetry.]]> 2023-08-07 05:58:03 UTC https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2657044119 mpmyers4az https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2657060102 Insomnia

...or just procrastination. I must go to sleep. Success at work in a few hours depends on it. Or does it? I already bit my nails as far down as possible without going the extra millimeter which inflicts irritating pain while awaiting further growth. It's as if I don't want the day to end because it means I'll have to wake to another. 

I already know what this one is like. I'm too old for unsolicited adventure.

the quiet 
of pretending
the practice 
of gratitude and
the hum of the A. C.

]]> 2023-08-07 06:30:48 UTC https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2657060102 mpmyers4az https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2661212536 He came back for just one day,
the little Negro boy from the landing,
whose sons and daughters were seen
driven back down into the desolate valley.
And he, too, had gone with them.

But just this one day, he is back,
a fully grown man,
walking with modern day me.
And my pale ancestors called him "contraband".

As we walked together on the sunlit path,
I was eager to show him that we eat at the same table, now.

The Negros Leagues are gone; we play together.
The schools are integrated; we learn together.
We, too, in America,
defend, work, govern, and shop together.

He smiles, tips his hat.
As we round a curve on the path, the Negro speaks.

He speaks of rivers
and I marveled at his history
that binds us together
though it was lost in
the shadows of discrimination.

I wanted to hold his hand,
to sing together the words of that mighty Negro spiritual,
"Free at last, thank God Almighty, we are free at last."

The muddy waters 
had made the golden sunset of autumn seem so distant,
but the stream is running clearly now, 
the poplars only bear their normal fruit.

We paused. As I pointed out a stone of hope,
I told him that there is a solid rock just ahead.

He says that he has already sung 
while standing firmly on the solid rock.
The destination is farther than I think.

He tells me my stone has become a stumbling block,
Throw it into the river of righteousness.
let the cleansing waters shape it.

I did not understand, 
but as I tossed the stone into the river,
the current seemed stronger than I thought.

As we rounded another curve in the sunlit path,
we stopped to rest in the shade of an old olive orchard.
The Negro shook my hand, thanked me for my time,
and we departed into different buildings.

It was Sunday.





Author Notes: The words and metaphors in the above poem come from famous others, most notably, Martin
 Luther King, Jr.'s "sunlit path" and Langston Hughes' The Negro Speaks of Rivers.]]> 2023-08-14 06:05:59 UTC https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2661212536 mpmyers4az https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2661219521 So. I am approaching retirement age. Three and a half decades ago, I had plans. But plans change and the original ones are crumpled up papers filling the waste basket.

up in the air
untouchable clouds
until the rain falls

Several jobs, two careers, playing house, and a couple of hobbies. Not necessarily in that order. Life has a way of circling back. Sometimes. Perhaps I never wanted to finish the job anyway.

in the sock drawer
power of attorney
dust on the table

I look at the bin next to my desk where bills don't lay unpaid. Instead they float invisible in the cloud unless I have notifications activated. Yet, scanning the crumpled up papers, I see the remnants of unfinished poems. Time to take out the...



 ]]> 2023-08-14 06:18:25 UTC https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2661219521 mpmyers4az https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2662352352 I saw a movie today. A lot of Earth-shaking thoughts were provoked along with rumbling and booms that were felt. 

Unrelated, I have insomnia again. I'm lying under the cloudy sky and don't expect to see any more Perseid meteors. Related, I also don't expect to see nitrogen nuclei fusing above me setting the atmosphere ablaze.

when the can opens
those little bubbles 
on my lips

Not worms. But I recall the rainy morning in Georgia when I was in 5th grade at St. Thomas More. On rainy mornings there were worms on the sidewalk. I remember the goosebumps and ebeejeebies I'd feel in the core of my being at the thought of stepping on them. Before class starts, on the playground, Marianne said, "I have a surprise for you. Close your eyes and hold out your hands." I did. She place cold cooked spaghetti in my hands. I screamed. She laughed. The 'worms' were flung. All in a split second.

torrential downpour
no sheets on the line
to bring in

My outdoor lounge chair is a faded blue, no longer navy, but still works fine. I'll not be going to the other movie. No pink for me in this dull reality. All the brouhaha holds no appeal. Not even with buttered popcorn and blonde beer in a clear plastic cup.



]]> 2023-08-15 11:48:00 UTC https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2662352352 mpmyers4az https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2666255477 2023-08-19 04:02:28 UTC https://padlet.com/mpmyers4az/ygghts5j9g036nox/wish/2666255477