Loose Leaf Notes

That’s a picture of me packing a suitcase for the afterlife, sorting a few years of poetry into a collection, one that reads like a memoir, explores the weight of loss, rummages through my childhood closet and is informed by dreams. I’m picking and choosing what fits and distilling the rest to its essence.

Poet David Whyte refers to the stage of life I’ve been documenting as ‘apprenticing ourselves to our own disappearance.’  Psychologist and motivational speaker Wayne Dyer once said, ‘I’m 71 and cramming for my finals.”  And I’m writing poetry that lets the psyche guide the itinerary because “the days are small / packed tightly together / Not much room / for last minute changes.”

Memoirist, poet and novelist Jim Minick nailed it when he described the poems in Packing a Suitcase for the Afterlife this way:  “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.”

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