Loose Leaf Notes

Spring sky weeps into overwhelmed puddles Hooded jonquils huddle like drunks at a bar _______Colleen Redman / Poets United

Climate changed blooms come a month too soon forsythia flowers died the year Trump won election tampered in his favor by Russians and traitors refugees had no place to go Their numbers grew as glaciers diminished in a tsunami of sorrow while people like me wrote poems while driving in carbon spewing cars We rode […]

A dream A sunbeam An omelet with olives A new poem The news A dustpan and broom A stitched hem A stack of kindling A teapot turned cold A bird steals a corn kernel from the chicken coop bowl __________Colleen Redman/ Poets United  / Imaginary Garden with Real Toads

My father died in the hospital where he held a remote control the same one he hung on to while watching TV at home We hoped it would put him at ease and give him a sense of control but there were no new chances or rewind features Just pause and mute Just wait and […]

You’ve got to begin the conversation If you don’t listen you can’t respond If you don’t ask there is no answer And if you don’t write it down it ends before it starts   __________Colleen Redman / Poets United

A butterfly appears My head tilts to watch it My body holds the flowers that flutter as it passes A smile crosses the room _______Colleen Redman / Imaginary Garden with Real Toads /First kiss HERE.

I’m counting syllables in a poem like medicinal drops of tincture I’m writing the formula on the back of a card grabbed from the table by the bed where I’m prone to lay and tell only the truth rather than lie and be caught awake ________Colleen Redman  / Poets United

Using poison to kill a poison has a lasting side-effect The body is never the same A lie like laughter is the same in every language but it’s deadly in the end The butterfly doesn’t recognize the pupa as itself It doesn’t see denial changing to normal and then to conformity But it’s clumsy when […]

It’s like a sensitive person who takes on the problems of everyone around them I want to protect it keep its sunny side clean not wash out pans or wipe the floor with it But soon it’s bloated faded and stained I avoid contact or looking at it I give it a new lease in […]

This morning the moon glowed like a spotlight in a theater of sky It appeared like a trick that was pulled from a hat after being magically sawed in half ________Colleen Redman / Poets United

The bubbles in my bath are a universe of planets I’m a clumsy cosmic island making ripples in deep space putting out their starry lights bumping into cosmic order I’m splayed across dark matter like a swath of milky way ________Colleen Redman / Poets United

Last night I pushed an oversized log into the woodstove fire The glass door cracked when I forced it shut and spread like a vein of frost on a window Now my dreams are like shopping lists that repeat without plots and my poems are like actors in bad roles Pens skip with cold ink The […]