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This is a space where men can share their perspectives on their inner journey. The form can be prose, poetry, photographic or handcrafted images. The purpose is to stimulate, even minutely, the transformative process. All art strives to move us to a different place, that place of the soul, that initiatory space, where the call is heard and identity found. Please reverence the space by respectfully entering and sharing.

July, 2000

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the roadmap to manhood.

my roadmap to manhood seems to have gotten smeared and folded into disarray.

handed to me by rough hands and weathered blindness

so i've taken to tearing it into pieces.

reassembling it with scotch tape, white-out and a higher purpose.

my father's buckle-down theory has left me strapped into a dead machine,

i've gotta get this thing started.

now i'm standing at the corner of boyhood and adolescence, i'll wait forever for a ride.

so i guess i'll take the keys and head out in my own contraption toward the end.

on the road i'll pick up my buddies along the way, stopping to pick up a bag of fresh challenges and a six-pack of laughter to go with it.

leaving one or two behind as we go until eventually, i'm on my own.

man this road is rough and it seems to be in constant repair, there's an endless row of orange barrels.

someday i'll come to the end and pull over to reflect.

i'll see how my car has changed from a pinto, to a ragtop, to a sedan, then a pickup and finally an rv with all the amenities

and i'll laugh, maybe shed a tear.

but i'll be satisfied as i look into that rearview mirror and see the reflection of a "real man" staring back at me

the sun will set in a glorious explosion of purple and orange.

i'll pass the keys to the rv onto my sons or daughters in hopes that the way will be easier for them.

if nothing else...at least it will be a comfortable ride.

Charlie Padgett