Featured Member Artist
February 2026

Colleen grew up in central New Jersey. She always had a love of reading and is a fan of most genres. After graduating Rutgers University with a degree in Biology, she spent several years working as a Quality Control specialist in Big Pharma but never abandoned her love of the literary. She found herself joining a local poet’s group that met at the town library, in time, she began facilitating Poets’ readings and co-hosting poetry events.

After becoming a military spouse in 2006, Colleen left NJ for different parts of the country but never left her creative roots behind; acting in several Community Theater play productions in Minot, ND, and enjoying book clubs in St. Louis. She moved to Savage in 2018 and set about joining several book clubs and eventually a writing group that meets in the Savage Library.    

Primarily writing poetry, Colleen has written several essays and two plays, one of which entitled “Statistic,” was performed at Circle Playhouse in Piscataway, NJ.

Colleen’s poetry is prose-based and informal and has much personal meaning for her. She hopes after reading it, you might proceed to write something of your own as she finds writing poetry therapeutic.  Colleen is happy to have joined the Savage Area Arts Council and anticipates the community will enjoy experiencing the art and joy of the written word.

Meet Member Artist Colleen Cohan Johnson!

Two of Colleen’s poems are featured here…

repose

edge of the night woods

snow falls lightly

accumulates quietly

I lie prone under evergreen grove

safe from the world

now covered in white

prefer to delay the impending day

forsake the commotion

submit to this nest of comfort

awakened I rise, my senses still dulled,

I can visit this scene, I pause to realize

I can find it just fine

Behind these closed eyes

To Calm the Savage Beast  

To soothe a sullen savage like me
Would take a musical miracle:
My sad, churning thoughts, dreams in disarray

Self-help books and talk, talk, talk - therapy - of no use -
The alleged gurus helping themselves to your gullible purse.
With muddled mind, I certainly even look a mess.

Urged my bodily self together one night,
Ventured out to some cheerless, dark bar,
To test the theory of the calming effects of enough alcohol

Upon the stage he was
Strumming a six string, humble and coy
Taking a backseat to even the drummer

But I knew… I absorbed and appreciated what went into his play
More than fingers, frets, chords, or capo
Esteemed and earnest resonance, tone

Hypnotized: The notes invaded me, I was surrounded, I surrendered -
As his sound and sway
Began to cure my madness

View featured artists from previous months by clicking on the images below…

2025 Featured Member Artists Archive

December 2025 - Dan Sawatzky
November 2025 - Tom Curry
July 2025 - Greg VanGompel
June 2025 - Adele Halberg
April 2025 - Patricia Kness
March 2025 - Denise Bunkert
February 2025 - Denise Sawatzky
January 2025 - Maureen Sorensen