The Art & Poetry of Mary Coleman

This poem is in memory of my mother who loved painting boats. I was with her when she died and watched it happen. At the time I was 28 and she had been fighting ovarian cancer for 4 years.

My middle name is Ellen after my great grandmother. I never met her, she died in the late 1950’s and was born in 1865. She was Irish. Initially it was going to be my first name, but my grandma Mary came down with terminal breast cancer around the time I was born so I got named after her instead.