Comments on Gravel

Redman-Waldeyer's lyrical poems are full of scented flowers and shattered glass. As she wrenches lilacs out of the compost of memory, you can be sure their delicate stems will be covered with something sharp. When a harried mother thanks a stranger who helps her bag groceries at the market, he says he'd have done anything to get her out of there. "It's the broken glass I search for" she writes. Reader beware! She finds it. And while it may cut the delicate skin, it can't help reflecting a light that is kind of beautiful.

Christine Redman-Waldeyer's poems explore the sad joy of living-from childhood memories to relationships with parents, to being a wife and mother. Her poems are feminine and tough and speak with total intimacy about finding a place in this world where there is always danger, yet where at the same time there is hidden beauty, mystery and grace.