Loose Leaf Notes

Packing a Suitcase for the Afterlife is a poetry memoir by Colleen Redman that is being published by Finishing Line Press (FLP), an award winning small press out of Georgetown, Kentucky.  Redman writes and provides photography for The Floyd Press newspaper in Floyd, Virginia, and other regional publications. Her poetry has been published nationally, regionally, online and most recently has appeared in Artemis Journal, Floyd County Moonshine, The Front Porch Review and The Poet’s Haven.

Packing a Suitcase for the Afterlife is a 32 poem collection that probes the questions: ‘How much does the essence of one’s psyche weigh? Is the soul the one carry-on that we can actually take with us? In the end, what do we value and what do we leave behind?’  The poems are a distillation of life’s memories and track the inner and outer journeys of childhood, aging, care giving and life’s inevitable losses.

Redman, a long time Floyd resident, who is originally from the small coastal town of Hull, Massachusetts, writes about packing a suitcase before returning to her hometown to care for her ailing mother … The last of the packing comes down to one question / should I bring extra shoes or make room for a book / Guide to a Happy Life? / I’m still looking for a good Sinatra record / because he was to your generation / what the Beatles were to mine / and music is a memory that doesn’t skip…

Another poem in the collection uses a suitcase as a metaphor for life. The poem takes a metaphysical turn, questioning the reality of time and matter…The days are small / packed tightly together / Not much room / for last minute changes … Poetry is a passport / in the universal mother tongue / It’s only 4% visible / and 96% dark riddle …

Jim Minick, a past Floyd Countian and author of The Blueberry Years: A Memoir of Farm and Family and the novel Fire Is Your Water, describes Redman’s poems as the expression of “loss tempered by wonder, love radiating like the moon (“a bowl fired by the sun”).” “These poems track a life, playful yet dark, frank and funny, yet somber. Along with the “Scrabble dictionary in the backseat” and the “kaleidoscope in the glove compartment,” your suitcase is ready, keep it close by,” he said.

Chelsea Adams, a fellow poet and former creative writing teacher at Radford University, noted that “Redman’s poems let the words “sink in/ and the silence between them” … She brings us to her earliest memories and dreams and lets us know they are still with her.”

Maurice Ferguson, the literary editor of Artemis Journal, cites two examples of how Redman’s poetry enriches readers. Referring to two poems that have recently appeared in Artemis, Ferguson says, “In “The Collector,” Redman illustrates her favorite theme and a trademark of some of her finest poems- her attention to creative process regardless of limitations of time or other distractions. “Let me steal a few moments/ to collect an intuition/ to look an untold story in the eye.”

“Secondly,” Ferguson continues, “in “Ghost Poem,” she tackles the same theme- find a poem and bring it into the light of day. Only this time, she rummages into the past, a visit to her childhood home to find her “poet’s voice” and a “… new poem to work on…”   Indeed, Ms. Redman is a collector who will keep her reader’s pockets filled with the riches of her poetic discoveries.”

If you would like to purchase a copy of Packing a Suitcase for the Afterlife, you can pre-order a copy online HERE, or send $14.99 (check or money order+$2.99 shipping) to Finishing Line Press, PO Box 1626, Georgetown KY, 40324.

– A slightly different version of the above first appeared in The Floyd Press and the Hull Times.  / Our World Tuesday