PACKING A SUITCASE FOR THE AFTERLIFE by Colleen Redman

“Loss tempered by wonder, love radiating like the moon (“a bowl fired by the sun”), these poems track a life, playful yet dark, frank and funny, yet somber. Along with the “Scrabble dictionary in the backseat” and the “kaleidoscope in the glove compartment,” your suitcase is ready, keep it close by.”

–Jim Minick, author of Fire Is Your Water: A Novel and The Blueberry Years: A Memoir of Farm and Family, Winner of the SIBA Book of the Year.

Readers will be enrichened by Colleen Redman’s poems.  As poetry editor of Artemis journal, I cite two examples we published in recent years. First, “The Collector” illustrates her favorite theme and a trademark of some of her finest poems- her attention to creative process regardless of limitations of time or other distractions. “Let me steal a few moments/ to collect an intuition/ to look an untold story in the eye.” Secondly, in “Ghost Poem,” she tackles the same theme- find a poem and bring it into the light of day. Only this time, she rummages into the past, a visit to her childhood home to find her “poet’s voice” and a “… new poem to work on…”  Indeed, Ms. Redman is a collector who will keep her reader’s pockets filled with the riches of her poetic discoveries.

–Maurice Ferguson, Literary Editor Artemis Journal

Redman’s poems let the words “sink in/ and the silence between them,” know “music is a memory that doesn’t skip,” know that “Leafless trees” could “cower”/ and “mourn” “being left behind,” and that the road we are traveling is “all the same long winding road.”   She brings us to her earliest memories and dreams and lets us know they are still with her.

–B. Chelsea Adams, is a retired Radford University creative writing teacher, whose published poetry collections include At Last Light and Looking for a Landing

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