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About the Artist
Forceful in presentation, diminutive in stature, outspoken, spirited, graceful, Myrtle Stedman has been described as “both innocence and heirloom.” Designated in 1985 as a Living Treasure in northern New Mexico, this pioneering woman is an award-winning artist, architect, and the author of ten books. In spite of a lengthy career in adobe architecture, and as a painter, Myrtle views her last four books, a series on the Universal Mind, as her most important work for the current times. The newest, The Ups & Downs of Living Alone in Later Life, was published by Sunstone Press in January 2001 to coincide with her 93rd birthday.
Poems from The Ups & Downs of Living Alone in Later Life (Sunstone Press, December 2000)
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From an afternoon
nap,
Sat up and looked
at the mountains.
They were swathed
in the dark blue
of a heavy
shower.
Lightning streaked
down from the
sky
Just as it did when
we were at
camp
And I looked from
the flap of our
tent as
I sat before my
easel.
A cool breeze came
in through
the door
Bringing the fragrance
of rain
And memory that
sufficed for
being at camp
now.
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I tangled with a
goatskin rug
in my hallway,
And was thrown against
the wall,
And down flat on my
back onto the
flagstone floor.
Everything on my
inside was moving
back into place.
So I lay there thinking,
“If they haven’t lost
their moorings
I’ll be all right.”
When I got up I
did all right–
Went to town the next
day and still
felt all right.
And I laughed about
it and told
a few;
Which brought it
all back, worse
than it was before.
Now I know that
you will think
that I am stretching
a point–
And you will remind
me that it often
takes a few days
For an injury to be really
felt,
But in those few days
how many times do
we revitalize the
incident?
We can keep the effects
effectively active
for years.
We are a mental construct.
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About Jacob who was
asleep in the desert
with his head on
a stone
For a pillow.
In a dream he saw
in the heavens
a ladder–
With angels descending
and ascending.
This is the way
the Mind
works.
We can be anywhere
on the rungs:
We can be close to
the bottom
With a serious
problem,
And the problem
can vanish
If we can see
ourselves on the
top rung
Above the problem,
above all of the
descending rungs.
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I got the full
impact
Of what I have
written
And really comprehended
what I have
said.
How could it have
taken so long
Or been so spasmodic?
I can see
That the things
I have been
writing
Only illuminate
what all vast
thinkers
And writers have
been saying,
But without all
the mystery
and trappings.
It is plain,
simple,
Basic and
understandable.
It is this:
In seeing the
Spiritual and
The Biological
as one.
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Poems from Of Things To Come: An Explosive Declaration (Sunstone Press, May 1998)
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There is a quiet mellowness
in a house which
is not spotlessly
clean.
There is a sense of
peace where
there is no fussiness.
A sense of peace
which can be felt
by a perfect stranger
entering the house.
A quietness
resides in a painting
on a wall
And silence
says it all.
Until it is time
for something
else
To be heard.
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My first grade
teacher told
us–
The difference
between people
and animals
Is that we can
think and
animals
canŐt.
I was ready to
leave my
books
And go home;
To apologize to
all the animals
I knew,
And never go
back to school.
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We are attracted
to one another
But when we are
together there
is a sense
Of being mine;
He is mine
or
she is mine.
And we start
wanting mine
To start acting
as mine
Which takes away
the sense of
being ourselves;
We foolishly don’t
see what we are
doing to one
another,
And begin to blame
him or her
For all kinds of things.
Mistrust and con–
fusion sets
in
And we back
away from
union.
Or grin and bear
it because
we have
made a
commitment.
Commitments
are broken
right and
left.
And we make the
same mistake
with another
And another and
another
Until we see our
mistake;
Or we keep a commitment
and finally learn
to appreciate
the other
As other
And a complement
to ourselves.
And love again
and become one
As in the beginning.
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Is the Lord’s
and the fruit
thereof.
We are fragments
of the Big Bang
Not lost out there
but captured
and retained
The ingredients of
the universe–
The hologram.
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Books on Architecture
Excerpt from Adobe Architecture (Sunstone Press, December 1987)
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Excerpt from Rural Architecture (Sunstone Press, April 1989)
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