Loose Leaf Notes

Cool dip Ladle of light Illustrious toast to the good night _____________Colleen Redman / Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads

-At five foot and one inch, I’ve hemmed many pants and skirts. Maybe if I was taller, I would have read more of the classics. Sew a straight line Let divergences be gradual Unravel tangled threads and clip loose ends Don’t cut corners Repair what matters Don’t hold up hems with safety pins Take up […]

I remember being asked but don’t remember what happened after that Did I look? Did I show? For the bribe of a popsicle? I remember where we stood between the Coast Guard Station and his family’s summer rental on the back path to home I remember the sting of gravel on my bare feet and […]

Shy moon blushes Late bloomer shine From behind leafy branches It gets braver as it climbs ___________Colleen Redman / Poets United  

  Mara wants to take our poetry routine on the road. Because we know each other so well and have been bouncing off each other’s work for 30 years, our featured reading at the Little River Poetry Festival came off a bit as a comedy act.  Back in the day (2005 – 2012) when we […]

I used to stick my head out the backseat car window not caring that it messed my hair I still lean up and talk to the people up front and lay down and rest when nothing is happening When I stare at a stranger passing by on a highway they stare back like I called […]

Today’s poetry was paper trashUnrequited loves that broke my heartTeased out lines written in circlesBig ideas that fell flat  So I vowed to quitbut miss it alreadyI put it in writing but scribbled that too Now I’m looking for loopholesto fix what I quit to write today’s honest wordnot tomorrow’s regret __________Colleen Redman / Poets United/ […]

“A scar is what  happens when the word is made flesh” – Leonard Cohen The scars around my anklesfrom being burned when I was a babyare almost invisible nowLike the wound of being separatedfrom mother and homefor a four-week hospital stay We called dragonflies “sewing needles”when we were kids at Billington SeaWe were scared they would land […]

It’s a list of words I like A finger pointing mouthful of spelling Vanity license plate of noisy graffiti   It’s not a real poem It’s a game show in morse code buy a vowel to solve the puzzle   This is the fall of the oral laid out on pavement on billboards and keyboards […]

We are like two sides of the same coin Heads or tails We both win ___________Colleen Redman / Imaginary Garden with Real Toads

The poem I write is not like the jacket I wear   It’s more the shoulders it rests on the arms it covers the belly it warms   And the poem I write is not like the soup I make   It’s the wrist that stirs the spoon the hand that guides the knife to […]

The sky is always bluer on the side of new adventure.