Loose Leaf Notes

Glow in the dark kick-off
Across a field of sky
Paused in mid-air
Everybody’s watching
Won’t touch down till morning

A Blueberry Pie for Joshua
Rolling out pie dough
into continent shapes
first Asia, then Africa
I feel my grandmother’s wildness in me
navigating rough edges of coastline
as I steer the rolling pin like an oar
like an antique relic from her “roaring 20s”
it rocks back and forth
I relive my mother’s frustration
while patching the dough where it’s spotty or torn
trying to [...]

The beach at sunset is the Louvre of nature
A Sistine Chapel of sky

A Maxfield Parrish of pink-lined clouds
over a Timothy Leary of tide

The beach at sunset is a great romance
of Mona Lisa moon and Van Gogh sun

Where Lovers stroll
and paddle surfers sweep
the deep end of ocean

Painting with my camera
I time the wash of waves

Tilt the [...]

Morning clouds cling
to its bony spine
Smoke rings rise
from its bowl
Fire breathing yawn
exhales the sun
burns a hole in the fog

So I went to my yearly CPR class on Saturday with nursery rhymes on my mind.  I tried to jot them down in my notebook like I did many years ago while making fire alarms in a factory or when I worked in my friend Juniper’s bead shop.  But the CPR teacher kept quizzing us, [...]

The boasting crocus
woke us singing
Dandelions were roaring
and bluebells were ringing
_______________
Loose-lipped tulips
made the red poppies blush
The iris joined the chorus
and the crabapples fussed
_______________
The daffodils were baffled
by the mourning dove’s weeping
Wagging dogwoods barking
kept the peepers from sleeping
_______________ ~ Colleen Redman
Post note:  The above is a recent re-write for “Jasmine Patchouli I Love You Truly,” an old manuscript [...]

I’ll tell you a story
of things that smell lovely
Jasmine, patchouli
I love you truly
Post note: The poem is from my vault of nursery rhymes written in the 70’s – 80’s that I’ve recently been re-writing.   The photo is from a Woman’s Wellness Week bookmaking workshop sometime in the early 90’s and is a page [...]

The smell of wild onions
and dirt over easy
is awakening my appetite
for spring

From lumbering slumber
we come up for air
crashing through
waves of blue blankets
From a warm weightless drift
comes a cold wakeful spray
Sleep sogged and dream logged
we dive into day

The moon is a mutiny
a one bubble revolution
escape from the sky-sea
of sudsy clouds
It floats across the heavens
like a flower child pagan
in peaceful demonstration
against the status
quo

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 [...]

There are no cell phones on Neverland
So, Wendy emails Peter to say
that she’s joined a 12-step program
and is sewing new curtains
for the Darling home nursery
“Oh, and by the way
bring home some milk and bread for dinner
Captain Hook is coming over,”
Wendy says
Peter wants a divorce
but can’t afford the alimony
He storms off the island
Takes a job in [...]

The “other woman” is Wendy
She’s co-dependent with Peter
She’s passive-aggressive with pirates
and sleeps with lost boys
She threatens to leave Neverland
because Peter won’t be her daddy
won’t discipline the children
or stop seeing Tiger Lily
Wendy won’t live in Peter’s shadow
She wants to wear it as her own
She professes her love for Tinkerbell
but aims a poisoned arrow
Hooked on fairy dust
Confined [...]

A sea of snow has washed up on my porch where I’m lounging in the sun like a beach bum on vacation. Should I take the plunge, wade out into it? I might need a boat to reach the other side of the yard. I might see a polar bear.
There [...]

December trees bloom
with icy white blossoms
Shimmering snowflaked
petals drift down
Draping the ground
in a misty bridal veil
Pronouncing the promise
of winter’s silent vow

Who rings the bell of poetry
and what makes me sing along?

The moon left its thumbprint
But pleads its innocence
No stars have been stolen
No alibi confirmed

Question mark moon
Each star is a period
in the lyrical miracle
of the story eternal