The Cliff Hanger
I told all my friends
that my idea of hell
is exercising in a pool
with a bunch of old ladies
lifting pool noodles in unison
But I love to swim
I do the breast stroke
slow and solo
like water ballet
I make my own way
up and down the lap lane
I once won a competition
for the best breast stroke
at the Hull Yacht Club
when I was ten
It was the same day I lost
my birthday wrist watch
and the bathing cap prize
that I never wore
was no consolation
My earliest idea of heaven
was playing paper dolls
and eating candy
But even then I knew
that could become boring
It might have been the same year
I accepted that Santa wasn’t real
the same year I secretly
said to myself “I hate God”
just to see what would happen
Nothing happened
I learned my mind was mine
and no one could see into it
that my soul was original
and no one could own or control it
Later I learned that I wasn’t a sinner
Heaven wasn’t a red lollipop
Death’s not a popularity contest
for separating best from the worst
My life is like a library book
being read to the end
where the plot thickens
and all fines are forgiven
There is no spoiler
to heaven’s cliff hanger
I trust the author
and write my own chapter
I wake and sleep
I end where I start
I lean into the parts
that feel true
A familiar love
A mystery let loose
Slow and solo
I yield to unknowing
to the holy unfolding
where consciousness isn’t
mine alone
__________Colleen Redman / Poets and Storytellers United
July 12th, 2024 12:11 am
I lean into the parts
that feel true – that’s so lovely… and that flows naturally from our mind being ours and our souls being original… (what are pool noodles, though? 🙂 )
July 12th, 2024 6:54 am
Life is a balancing act … we win but also lose. I love how you framed this insight: “There is no spoiler to heaven’s cliff hanger I trust the author and write my own chapter”
July 12th, 2024 8:49 am
Pool noodles are long lightweight and rubberlike tubes that some use in exercise routines in pools with. Here is a picture. https://www.humanitas.net/content/uploads/2017/10/venous-1.jpg
July 14th, 2024 11:41 am
I love this lines so much: “I trust the author /
and write my own chapter”. The whole poem is a delight. Read it with a smile on my face. I truly enjoyed the sense of self-knowledge and self-love, seeing a soul discover herself and realizing that the journey and what comes next belongs to her.
July 15th, 2024 8:09 am
Wow! Apart from the fact that I would never win any kind of swimming comp, we have EVERYTHING in common! In detail! Which is rather wonderful to know.
July 17th, 2024 8:39 pm
“My life is like a library book
being read to the end
where the plot thickens
and all fines are forgiven”
I love this!
July 18th, 2024 3:12 pm
this is like the cine film of life that people see at the end except you have seem to have the best lines
July 18th, 2024 3:16 pm
I laughed when I read about ‘a bunch of old ladies lifting pool noodles in unison’, Colleen, as about a month ago I started aqua aerobics a couple of times a week (sometimes with noodles), and a slow breaststroke swim on Fridays, making ‘my own way up and down the lap lane’. I swam for my school when I was ten. These lines also resonated:
‘My life is like a library book
being read to the end
where the plot thickens
and all fines are forgiven’.
July 18th, 2024 3:50 pm
“To thine own self be true”
July 18th, 2024 3:54 pm
There is a cinematic feel to this poem, Colleen! Gorgeously rendered.
July 18th, 2024 5:25 pm
“ I learned my mind was mine” – a lightbulb moment!
July 18th, 2024 5:51 pm
There are too many absolutely perfect insights in this to call out one as better than the rest. What a wonderful expression of self.
July 19th, 2024 5:35 am
I identify with your discovery that a god has no power over your mind but am mystified as to the meaning of the last stanza, Coleen…
July 19th, 2024 4:00 pm
I love how you mixed the mundane with the profound and the practical with the existential. I love the conversational tone and the inner thought references we can all recognize. In short, I love this poem.
July 21st, 2024 3:55 pm
Wonderful words Colleen. Thought provoking my friend. 🙂✌🏼🫶🏼
July 18th, 2026 12:29 pm
There is one mind, one consciousness and we are all part of it.