This Time... Poems by Colette Volkema DeNooyer

“In This Time… poet Colette Volkema DeNooyer creates and preserves the heart and soul of a life, passing on through poems her feelings and wonderings, insights gleaned and memories of those who so deserve to know that they are cherished. The evidence of the poet’s care and loving attentiveness is there in the precision of detail and the enormous amounts of time spent honing her artistry, the penultimate sign 
of sincerity. Save and savor these poems. They are as lovingly real as words can ever make incarnate.” 

– Jack Ridl, author of Broken Symmetry. Losing Season and Practicing to Walk Like a Heron

This Time... is a basketful of fruits gathered just at the perfect point of ripening. It is hands cupped, offering the reader a cool drink of wisdom, a rest stop on the journey from childhood to old age. This poet knows the agony of regret, and the resurrection that is possible when we forgive ourselves. It is a travelogue for beginning again in the middle of life, offered by one who has lived and loved deeply, one who has mastered her craft all the way to the genius of simplicity. In “Life After Forty,” DeNooyer writes, Pay attention to eagles as you go. It’s not too late/to learn from them — they reach the summit soaring. 

– Pat Schneider, author of Writing Alone and With Others and How the Light Gets In, both from Oxford University Press. Founder, Amherst Writers & Artists.

Colette Volkema DeNooyer began her career as a teacher. Later, curiosity led her to seminary with questions about traditional answers where she earned her M. Div. As a minister she began writing curriculum for a Montessori based religious education program she called Worship Center, inviting children to wonder and value the right questions rather than one right answer. Approaching fifty she retired from ministry, choosing to pursue her love of writing. In 2002, having trained with Pat Schneider, creator of the Amherst Writers and Artists (AWA) writing method, Colette began Come Write with Me leading writing groups and writing retreats for almost a decade. Though her first love was writing prose, she finds herself turning more often now to poetry, agreeing with writer May Sarton, “I write prose to know what I think. I write poetry to know what I feel.” Her poems have appeared in Dunes Review, the Literary Life Chapbook and Waterlines, an anthology collaboration of five poets. And now, in this collection, reflecting back she gathers memories and moments lest they vanish, in order to leave a legacy of This time…