Crepe-myrtle is summer’s answer to lilacs in the spring Happy girls bouncing with berry-red pom poms shaking in the breeze while ironweed purple and goldenrod yellow in September school colors play the field ___________Colleen Redman / Poets United / Imaginary Garden with Real Toads
We are a crossword puzzle When I go down you go across but we meet at some point to make sense of each other Every word counts Every blank space is a mirror to see ourselves better _____________Colleen Redman / Poets United / Imaginary Garden with Real Toads
I caught a firefly in a jar because I couldn’t remember doing it as a child Because it laid at my feet like a crashed offering A shiny object that caught my attention like the early morning drowning when I thought about the ocean ‘why did I ever leave it?’ ‘how can I live without […]
Shadow Shot Sunday
My mother’s clothes arrived in a dream just a bit too large and dated I didn’t recognize the folded shirts the shoulder-padded dress with faded patterns of blue or gray What should I do with their heavy weight their empty reminders that no one can fill? I imagine them packed in thrift shop boxes hanging useless […]
The birds are like children that wake me too early and I’m a neglectful parent who closes all the windows Their playful songs call but I don’t answer They remind me of everything I’ve left undone I love them all but not like this It’s too early to chirp sunny side up on the bright […]
Punctuated poetry with arbitrary line breaks is like prose poured into a little black dress Every period that stops where a line already has is a button waiting to pop Every comma that dangles at the edge of empty space is a thread that could lead to unraveling Every new line capitalized in the middle […]
My poet friend in India heard the wind confessing but here in America I heard it complain It stirred like a conscience warning of consequences when winners against losers are the rule of law From hush to bluster in the simmer of summer the wind gave voice to voiceless children helpless hostages held to stop […]
Are poems like eggs? Do I only have so many? Am I born with all the poems I’ll ever write inside me? While new ideas swirl like a million unborn secrets Conceived but not delivered they tease but don’t get written ________________Colleen Redman / Poets United / Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads
The cowbirds crowd out the flock But catbirds sing in spite of that Beautiful solos that need no accompaniment Blank-checked tickets to all that is timeless They track the route back to my youth where the world was laid before me With their heralding of peace and maps of migration they return again like angels […]
I pour through every picture like an eye-witness at a line-up Ruling out the usual suspects Looking for proof of concept The winners mix with losers and all start to look alike They pile up like cold cases forgotten files on desktops that don’t do the world justice __________Colleen Redman / Poets United / Imaginary Gardens […]
Time to weed the poem to plant a row of words to turn the phrases that bloom the colors to follow the root to the source of truth for the sustenance of the soul _____Colleen Redman / Poets United
