After the Golden Globes and in Honor of Valentine’s Day
It seems that my chances
of wearing a gown on the red carpet
and being mistaken for a movie star
are coming to a close
I’ve gone from being just a hair out of place
to one lost in hive of Hollywood women
stung by bees
drunk with honey
and swollen with time
No one mentions that we can see
the seams of their faces
stretched over canvases of Dorian Gray
Or that we can’t keep our eyes
off their Barbie doll cleavage
for all the wrong reasons
These days my love poetry
doesn’t wax as full
It takes time to thread a needle
to pin down an irresistible desire
or alter a dress that needs taking up
because I’m growing back into a girl
So it looks like I won’t be wearing hot pink taffeta
or a French twist like Grace Kelly’s
I won’t be dying my hair red to match the cabernet
or breaking up Jeff Bridges’ 33 year-old marriage
There won’t be any airbrushed endings
no lifts, nips, or tucks
I don’t need to keep filling
an already fulfilled love affair
one that’s never been cheated-on
~ Colleen Redman
January 19th, 2010 3:25 am
Quite the take on the awards show. I missed it, but then I miss most of them because it is like some cartoon land to me.
January 19th, 2010 7:10 am
I watch awards shows only to see what they are wearing, and unfortunately, I won’t be trotting down a red carpet anytime soon – maybe in my next life…..lol
I love the line about breaking up Jeff B.’s long marriage!
January 19th, 2010 9:22 am
The clothes are nice but the lifestyle seems so shallow.
January 19th, 2010 10:03 am
oh you made my day how I loved this fits for moi aussi !!hahah
January 19th, 2010 1:24 pm
What a wonderful poem. They are absurd looking – and yet we revere them. What an oddity.
January 19th, 2010 2:12 pm
Some of my favorite actresses still looked naturally beautiful, like Meryl Streep and Jessica Lange. I was very disappointed to see Sophia Loren (and wanted to avert my eyes) and I couldn’t believe that Mariah Carey would flaunt her cleavage to the point she did when they were so obviously fake. I don’t get why men like Clint Eastward are allowed to age but someone like Sophia Loren is damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t. Seems women go from sex kittens to cougars in Hollywood’s eyes. It’s as limiting as the Madonna or whore syndrome and women are so much more.
January 19th, 2010 2:54 pm
Well observed and shared. It made me smile to enjoy your observations.
January 19th, 2010 7:40 pm
I love this poem!! In all it’s bittersweetness.
PS I wasn’t able to watch this year. xox
January 19th, 2010 8:16 pm
I’m so glad you get it! It’s bittersweet and tongue in cheek.
January 20th, 2010 2:48 am
love the award shows and the poem. i think tagging any one group is a mistake (unless it is republicans! ;D )! calling these people shallow because they live a wealthy lifestyle or perform is a mistake. so many of them do very important charity work, political work, human service work, and use their influence to make things happen in positive ways. there are shallow people in every walk of life just as there are many people who never do anything unless it benefits them. we can find all kinds of people everywhere we look.
January 20th, 2010 9:00 am
I don’t understand how Cher still has a face after all her surgeries and there were some who showed WAY too much boob! Women are so tight it makes me feel sad over my sagging face. To make it worse they kept airing a commercial for a new medicine for women to improve our fading luster and skin. It said “men look right through me now.” I told Martin they knew their demographic but it made me hate them, not want their product.
January 20th, 2010 9:13 am
you must remember this.
you are the women we can touch
and talk to
and know for real
you are more than good enuf
your better than ice cream!
January 20th, 2010 9:15 am
I love and admire the Hollywood crowd, in general, which why I love watching awards show. I love movies. I love to watch what they are wearing etc. and I admire their talent, creativity, and political activism.
Sky, I’m not sure if you’re responding to the poem or a comment here. The poem does make a statement on plastic surgery but it’s mostly about me, my sadness and reluctant acceptance of getting older. I’m old enough that I’m not getting looked at like I was once but I don’t plan to take the plastic surgery route to prop up my looks either. I support and understand people doing what they can to look good and think that’s healthy to a point. But so much of the plastic surgery ruins their natural looks. It looks obvious and pitiful to me.
As my sister She knows, I’ve had a crush on Jeff Bridges since I was a teenager. And it’s not too late yet. If anyone ones to send me a ticket to the academy awards, I’d go! My fantasy used to be to sit next to Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins but since their break-up I think that idea is off.
January 20th, 2010 9:32 am
I can see the thread of human longing running through this poem. I think most people want to be seen, want to be known, and want to see and know others. Sometimes, I will go an entire day at work and not speak to anyone. On days like that, it is easy to wonder if I even exist. I think it is beautiful when we try to take care of that specific need in one another.
January 20th, 2010 4:57 pm
Very insightful, Poe. Human longing is a good interpretation. Longing and grief are underneath the critique and the tongue in cheek. Part the longing is a wish for us all to see the beauty that shines out from within more. And part of the grief is the sadness of knowing we will all age and pass away. I want for all of us to maintain our dignity, whatever that means.
January 20th, 2010 11:08 pm
response was to a comment, not to your poem. plastic surgery results vary and likely depend on how much and how often someone has it done. i don’t care much about it one way or the other except feel sadness when someone like meg ryan ruins her beautiful, natural beauty. beauty will always be in the eye of the beholder. my own dermatologist is a true, natural beauty that one would look at more than twice and remember always, but she has filled her approximately 38 year old cheeks with something puffy that makes her look strange in my opinion.
gosh, i would love to read a post one day that you got to meet jeff bridges! what a thrill that would be. make it happen.
January 23rd, 2010 10:36 am
I like your Poem very much, Colleen….And I had a response to the commenter who kind of trashed Hollywood people as “shallow”….Many are, I’m sure, but many many Actors/Writers/Directors, etc., are wonderful talented creative dedicated people who are just “people” like all the rest of us….I agree with “sky”….And as to Jeff Bridges—I was so moved when he won and that entire room stood up for him…They all know what a great actor he is and that THIS is his time and his turn! Have you seen “CRAZY HEART”? He is superb! He becomes that character and one forgets ‘Jeff Bridges’….(Well….not really, but “really”….!) It is a lovely film in every way. I am disturbed by the people who do things to themselves where the begin to not be recognizeable any more…And these new treatments—collagen and botox—They seem so very distorting to me. It pains me that someone would do that to themselves, but…it’s their face and their life.
I hope you do get to go to The Academy Awards some day, my dear.
January 23rd, 2010 1:50 pm
I can’t wait to see Crazy Heart. I was very moved by the standing ovation Jeff Bridges got and laughed at his line, ‘you’re screwing up my under-appreciated status.’ (a paraphrase).
March 4th, 2010 1:43 pm
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