Fall Together

Friendship will teach you that someone is more than you thought they might be, that time moves faster than you imagined it ever could, and that grace is a fragile chalice to grip lightly, but to hold firmly in a steady grip, even as we all fall together towards the light.

Greylocks

Greylocks - by MRM

April 15th & 16th, 2024

I remember reading a book about Greylocks when I was a young child running barefoot and tanned through the Sonoran Desert. Greylocks was a cool cat protagonist who spent some time trying to catch a fat robin.  

I was learning about local birds - using a paperback Golden bird guide my mother had loaned me. I knew the mocking birds and the mourning doves, the pigeons and the house wrens. We didn’t have robins in Yuma. Greylocks’ color pencil-sketched robins on fibrous pages were vivid and alive in my imagination. 

We had roadrunners in Yuma; we’d see them running across the tops of houses. They’d jump from one roof to the next, scurrying so fast - they looked like a long dark streak with sharp eyes and a beak. They zipped along as if their feet were burning; maybe they were. 

I knew what a cactus wren looked like, though I hadn’t seen one. But we didn’t have robins, and I wished that we did. Robins lived where there were tall green trees and thick, woodsy undergrowth - where vines climbed tree trucks like I did back then. Robins were a sign of a place that was more alive. 

My sister and I kept lists of all the birds we spotted and heard, early mornings when we went walking before the desert sun rose. We made lists of pre-dawn birds, insects spotted under street-lamps,  secret places to hide, the names and occupations of stuffed animals and Little People. 

Bishop Blocks and Lincoln Logs could build and destroy whole worlds in a day. Some of those towns lasted for weeks, or even years, rebuilt by the victors and the victims from memories made in the good times and the bad. 

The sun scorched its way through orange groves and alfalfa fields we ran without a single thought about the future or the past. Its cycles etched cracked earth the Colorado River-fed canals flooded daily with a richness we could scarcely fathom - without a care in the world. Always there. Never ending. 

Robins are a fixture in our yard and at the city park in the town where my wife and I live now. They hop and peck, often seem plump and happy, more contented in appearance than many of the other birds that scurry more, fight more, seem desperate more. Many robins have rich, perfect feathers like the ones in that old book did, but not all do. Some are much more tattered and worn - those tend to be thinner - not as contented - yet here they are being their best robin selves just like all the rest, each one happy to find a worm. 

This afternoon while I was sitting on a park bench, a mourning dove cooed from somewhere not far away as a woodpecker climbed and darted, pecking its way up a tall, dying tree trunk. There is something new here to see when you’re looking for it. I see robins everyday now. They’re everywhere. They were a symbol of all that I wanted but could not have. 

A brother and sister walked through the sand cliffs at sunrise, to see a burrowing owl mama with babies in a hole. As vivid as if it were just this morning, golden sun rays spill over the bluff and bathe that memory in a soft, warm glow. A child spirit visited me in a whisper of the wind - he said that perhaps I should cherish these robins - and that desert - more.

Nurse's Offering

*

Offering healing energy, unconditionally, to all
Remembering Universe considers us both equals.
Creating sacred spaces, communion and warmth...
Pouring out positivity, creating new realities
Through giving, making a better world.
Purposefully remembering you deserve my best.

***

Fall Flowers

*

I was amazed, late this afternoon to walk into the living room to see a bouquet of flowers lit by a single ray of sunlight, as if it were lit by a spotlight for a professional photograph. I snapped a few pictures during the brief moment of magic, and this one is my favorite.

A single ray shone

into the darkened room.

Fall flowers came to life,

erasing any gloom.

Magic!

Colors danced, in place,
to nature's Autumn song:

atoms in a trance,

inviting us

to dance along.

***

Surreal Day - By mrm - June 22nd 2011

*

Surreal day. 

So real.

Alarm ignored then heeded 

15 minutes later

Coffee with powdered creamer

(almost out of milk).

The car that ran that red light as we left the gym...

What were they thinking?

And the ones in the truck that flipped over...

How about them?

The girl has decided that she's worth more

than the worthless whims of some man-whore,

even though he's cute and she likes him.

She needs milk. 

"He's a good kisser."

Between bites

of Peanut Butter Panda Puffs.

"Love Me Do"

played to blues riffs on two guitars,

one hand steady from years of play

the other, not so sure, but surely on its way.

The Donner Party cannibalized my afternoon,

completely unaware 

the vegetarian enchiladas would be done soon.
Who knew that the dogs would like that ball so much more
wrapped in a sock?!

Then the time came and went

when I would see my love again.

A rampaging teen emerged

banging on walls, climbing on cars, creating superficial scars

on her skin.
Deeper were the wounded hearts 

of those who were watching her,
helpless,
but trying
to help.
Glass of milk before bedtime.
Plenty enough here
for coffee tomorrow.

***

Smoke Signals Sublime - by mrm - 16 Feb. 2011

Treasure deep inside my blood
History unknown
Chest of voices, soothing, deep
Howling, painful groans
Names, places, full of meaning
No more to be found
 Paddles dip, ply calm waters
Silent ripples round

Touch dark forests of my mind
Muffled voices fog
Mists of language, loss and time
Flensed bones rise from bogs
 Stories echo from dead jaws
Ancestors of old
Long disarticulated
Context now untold

Soft whisperings of wonder
In a tongue unknown
Lessons passed from ancient minds
Rambling, constant drones
Call to me from my own veins
Wave with undead hands
Set fires to mental chaff
Draw pictures in sand

Heart drums. Ghosts sing. Shadows teach
Dances to the wind.
Beckoning their children lost,
"Listen once again."
Inner ear tuned to faint sounds,
Echoes lost in time
Attempting to decipher
Smoke signals sublime.

Parting Wish - A tribute to Dr. Donald M. Tuttle, Ph.D - "Doc"

Dr. Don Tuttle "Doc" was the man who showed me how to live well and to appreciate the wonders of the natural world when I was young.

From the 1940's through the 1980's he hauled groups of school-age kids, in the back of his pickup truck every Saturday, through moist alfalfa fields, along the banks of the Colorado River, and into the wilds of the beautiful and still-wild Sonoran Desert.

Doc passed away three years ago yesterday. His continuing impact on the lives of generations of young boys and girls is simply beyond measure. Thank you Doc.

Parting Wish

By: MrM

Feb 1st 2007

You walked in from the barren world,

Drew castles in the sand

Envisioned places far and strange,

Then placed them in my hands

In a fragile, clear, thin sphere of glass

Holding plants and magic things

To those mystic lands you added life

That had six legs and wings.

You gave, and gave, and never took

You always kept your word

You never left or changed you mind

You made others seem absurd

Without words, you said so much

In life you were so large

Yet modest, simple, kind, and true

You brought me safe this far.

When I was young you took the helm

And steered me from the rocks
As life's winds blew; you fashioned me

Winter clothes, thick hats, warm socks.

Through soft words and quick jabs,

Diatribes when I would hear

Wisdom shared guided my life

Through love, and truth, not fear

A boy I was when we first met

Confused I've been before

A man I am and ready now

To aim for heaven's door

So I accept your parting wish

Mentor, Teacher, Friend

I'm ready now to take the wheel

Held true until the end.

With Love,

MRM

Buzzing Ascendancy

As the moon’s disk waned, so did the stubbornly persistent age of the cicadas. In their ancient lands the creatures’ hollow, rusting hulks lay in disarray along the grand avenues of the occupiers, a mute testament to their short-lived, buzzing ascendancy.

With the new moon arrived a renaissance of painted, scaled splendor, as all of the vibrantly colored butterflies of the region made their way to this locale in glorious reunion, for their very first time, yet again.

Tonight Jupiter made a pass at Diana; she shone even brighter with his nearness as the scent of wood smoke wafted ever so lightly through the first cool night of autumn.

~ mrm - September 29th 2009

Catch Me!

Sun shining down on Monterey.
My choices led me to this day,
Where colors blossom by the bay.
Spring finds me here and ready.

Wonder, come! Catch me unaware!
You will not find me unprepared.
I wonder when. I wonder where.
Life: vibrant, full and heady.

MySpace Music

I now have a MySpace Music page. I will only post the two latest songs on there for now, but eventually there will be more, including the all-time favorites (Gardenman, Cries of War, Chelsie's Song, Misfit's Memoirs, Atheistic Musings, etc :-)

http://www.myspace.com/michaelraymeadows

Saturn Just Off the Horizon

Midnight on a snow covered mountain.
The landscape basks in the moonlight.
White blanket covers the earth,
Radiant glow, crunching underfoot.
I can see for miles and miles.

Clear sky stretching out overhead,
Fog rolls down off the nearby peaks.
Sky filled with piercing bright stars.
Crisp smell of cold pines in still air.
Homemade baklava on an embankment of snow.

Saturn just off the horizon.

If this isn't the best way to start the new year... I don't know what is!

Happy New Year!