Loose Leaf Notes

From brim to brim the moon is smiling a Buddha blessing Bursting at the seams   _______________________Poets and Storytellers United

-January 2021  The night the world fell apart it thawed and violently dropped It snapped and crashed in chunks and loudly broke its wholeness Truth clung like polar bears trying to survive on floating sidewalks with tell-tale cracks While the drone of lies hummed like a generator that we hoped would run out of gas […]

Start early Don’t leave it to the last minute Pull up a chair and watch what happens Don’t forget to breathe before you stop breathing Don’t leave without saying goodbye ______Colleen Redman / Poets and Storytellers United

There’s a poem by Barbara Kingsolver My Mother’s Last 40 Minutes that broke me And I couldn’t walk away like I did while waiting at the bus stop when our dog was hit by a car A few people gathered to figure out what to do The bus to Hingham came and I got on […]

Reading her poetry is like splashing liniment on my right shoulder that is stiff My range is limited only improves by increments is measured by stretches and tasks out of reach by scrawling warm-ups of the best blind intentions to throw the first pitch that will lead to finished work But there is no instruction […]

I can’t drink tea on an empty stomach Can’t bring lilacs in the house because the fragrance is too strong When my husband gets bored and restless he thinks about changing jobs I just change the color of my nightgown But is has to be silk __________Colleen Redman / Poets and Storytellers United

Don’t be a falling star without a wish Don’t pull the rug out from under someone and call it musical chairs Hide a rhyme Break into a poem Spend time in the dark room to develop your life Save the Sunday ashes of your burned down house Plant an idea Be fooled by child’s play […]

Winter days shrink in a year that doesn’t fit like wool in the washer left to dry in the dryer when it wanted to be in the sun Two sizes too small rises up and restricts its fringe unravels and threads wear thin Until the sun begins to slow its path and the light wins […]

A light in the dark saves what is lost anoints the silent night when the paths of ages cross When closed hearts open and wise ways are taken alignments are blessed in the age of Aquarius ________Colleen Redman / Poets and Storytellers United

I’m hibernating but keeping good company with invisible essentials from waking dreams With the snap of fingers comes a ghost dance inventory where one day bleeds and the next is saved From a paint box sun with paper and pen words on pages take names With no expectations and a to-do list erased I’m getting […]

I drink the sun from the bottom of a cup reflected off my glasses with light laced mandalas It only takes a sip to be under its influence immersed in its starburst from tea drenched darkness From its pot of honey gold in every color of the rainbow its visionary shine cascades through my window […]

When daylight darkens my mind drops down to the pink tulip bulb that I buried in November as a remedy for winter come spring Shown on the package to be as pink as the tulip in the white framed photograph that hung on my mother’s bedroom wall that she wanted to fit in my suitcase […]