You Can Quote Me: Thoughts on Writing
In the same way a baby puts everything in his mouth to see what is like, I put words on paper.
The difference between a poet and a Buddhist is that a poet doesn’t mind suffering.
As a poet I think of myself as a nightshift stenographer hired by the muse to take down the moon’s business.
I’m still waiting for the Muse to write me a blank check.
I once described the Muses as “shy as a wallflowers” and “as fickle as a cats already fed.”
I can write without the Muse, but it’s like watering my garden with a hose in the summer when it really needs a soaking rain.
I think of my writing as something like Erma Brombeck meets Rumi.
My shortest writer’s bio: I keep a dictionary in the backseat of my car and a kaleidoscope in my glove compartment. What else do you need to know?
Writing is like playing scrabble. I don’t hold on to my Q for the whole game waiting for the play of my life. I play with what I have for the highest score every time.
Poetry is like math. You have to add meaning and sound together and make it equal the right answer.
Haiku is the bonsai of poetry.
The moon is poetry to the sun’s prose. It shines indirectly but penetrates deep.
Writing is like baking. You can’t rush the time it takes to do it. Thoughts have to congeal and there are steps that can’t be missed.
I write poetry by ear like a musician who doesn’t read notes can still play music.
Prose is like my day job and poetry is the rest of my life.
~ Colleen Redman Read my quotes on blogging HERE.
March 26th, 2012 2:00 pm
I can picture you pulling out the kaleidoscope at a stop light!
March 26th, 2012 2:07 pm
Regarding your question that little town is Chesapeake Beach, MD.
March 26th, 2012 10:07 pm
I feel connected to you as a writer reading this. Thank you.
March 27th, 2012 12:40 am
I love this. When I read your thoughts on writing, it makes me want to fill up journals, and soak in words, and write write write.
March 27th, 2012 12:47 am
I really LOVE this, Colleen. I love everything about it and you have such a wonderful way with words, my dear….A True Poet!
March 28th, 2012 8:16 am
This is my cup of tea!
March 31st, 2012 6:36 pm
I like this..a lot. 🙂
(BTW- My muse has offered me a blank check but she refuses to sign it.)
April 7th, 2012 2:28 pm
i truly love these lines: as a poet i think of myself as a nightshift stenographer hired by the muse to take down the moon’s business. i’m still waiting for the muse to write me a blank check.
i’ll also take straight cash. she just has to point to where it’s hidden. (she just whispered in my ear that she is doing exactly that:)
one just can’t outmaneuver the moon.
January 4th, 2013 10:47 am
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