The poetry of Allison Grayhurst

Posted on by Allison Grayhurst

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“Her poems read like the journal entries of a mystic – perhaps that what they are. They are abstract and vivid, like a dreamy manifestation of soul. This is the best way, in prose, one can describe the music which is … the poetry of Allison Grayhurst.” – Blaise Wigglesworth, ”Oh! Magazine: Ryerson’s Arts and Culture Voice”.

“Read at your peril. You will never look at this world in quite the same way again. Your eye will instinctively search the sky for eagles and scan the dark earth for the slightest movement of smallest ant, your heart will reach for tall mountains, bathe in the most intimate of passions and in the grain and grit of our earth. Such is Allison Grayhurst. Such is her poetry,” Eric M. Vogt, Poet and Author

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The River is Blind
Allison Grayhurst
$4
published in Ottawa by above/ground press
December 2012
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy
To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 402 McLeod St #3, Ottawa ON K2P 1A6 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com
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Other books are available in both paperback and digital form at Amazon.com, Amazon Europe, Amazon Canada and Amazon Kindle.

Follow the link below to the Amazon.com author page:

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KIWQUS

Or follow the link below to the Amazon.co.uk author page:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Allison-Grayhurst/e/B001KIWQUS/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Or follow the link to Amazon.ca:

http://www.amazon.ca/s?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Allison%20Grayhurst&search-alias=books-ca

Or follow the link to Amazon.com Kindle:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Allison%20Grayhurst&search-alias=digital-text&sort=relevancerank

(please note to retain proper formatting of the poems kindle books are best viewed from a large screen such as an iPad)

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New book titles below were written in this order:

Book 1: Journey of the Awakening, 1997, Edge Unlimited Publishing
Book 2: The Longing to Be, 1998, Edge Unlimited Publishing
Book 3: Death and Other Possibilities, 2000, Edge Unlimited Publishing
Book 4: Outliving the Inevitable, 2002, Edge Unlimited Publishing
Book 5: Into My Mortal, 2004, Edge Unlimited Publishing
Book 6: Red thread – Black thread, 2006, Edge Unlimited Publishing
Book 7: The Many Lights of Eden, 2008, Edge Unlimited Publishing
Book 8: Pushing Through The Jelly Fire, 2010, Edge Unlimited Publishing
Book 9: The River is Blind, 2012, Edge Unlimited Publishing

Collections:

Book 10: Seamless – A Collection of Love Poems, 2012, Edge Unlimited Publishing Book 11: If I Get There – Poems of Faith and Doubt, a collection,                             2012, Edge Unlimited Publishing

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 ”Allison Grayhurst’s poetic prose is insightful, enwrapping, illuminating and brutally truthful. It probes the nature of the human spirit, relationships, spirituality and God. It is sung as the clearest song is sung within a cathedral by choir. It is whispered as faintly as a heartbroken goodbye. It is alive with the life of a thousand birds in flight within the first glint of morning sun. It is as solemn as the sad-sung ballad of a noble death.THE RIVER IS BLIND is a must-read,” Eric M. Vogt, poet and author.

“When I read Allison Grayhurst’s poetry, I am compelled by the intensity and strength of her spirituality. Her poems undulate through paradoxes with much feeling and often leave me breathless, shaken. Allison Grayhurst’s poems are both beautiful and difficult to behold,” Anna Mark, poet and teacher.

“A river is in Allison Grayhurst’s poems. Sometimes it rages over boulders hidden beneath rapids. Sometimes it is as calm and placid as a summer day reflecting skies so blue they are as unusual as a Stellar Jay’s wings. The emotions in her poems sear with the power of Sylvia Plath. This is as serious a poet as is writing poetry today. For those adventurous enough to venture into a river wild, deep, calm, beautiful, shadowed, light, filled with moods and emotions of both an inner and the earth’s landscape, then this is a journey worth taking. It leads to experiences that have the texture and substance of life,” Thomas Davis, poet, educator, playwright, and novelist.

“Allison Grayhurst intertwines a potent spirituality throughout her work so that each poem is not simply a statement or observation, but a revelation that demands the reader’s personal involvement. Grayhurst’s poetic genius is profound and evident. Her voice is uniquely authentic, undeniable in its dignified vulnerability as it is in its significance,” Kyp Harness, singer/songwriter, author.

“Allison Grayhurst’s poems are like cathedrals witnessing and articulating in unflinching graphic detail the gritty angst and grief of life, while taking it to rare clarity, calm and comfort. Grayhurst’s work is haunting, majestic and cleansing, often leaving one breathless in the wake of its intelligence, hope, faith and love amidst the muck of life. Many of Allison Grayhurst’s poems are simply masterpieces. Grayhurst’s poetry is a lighthouse of intelligent honour… indeed, intelligence rips through her work like white water,” Taylor Jane Green, Registered Spiritual Psychotherapist and author.

 

 

Because of course

Posted on by Allison Grayhurst

 

Because of course

 

you will go with summer

never knowing a remedy.

You will go beyond where you go

around the ninth and final life, ducking

in dark boxes to fade finally alone,

away from instinct and nurturing.

You will go into the natural earth,

and from there, my vision staggers and

cannot name, but caught

on the wind, in sensual shades

of forgiveness mighty & forever,

you will know a place unhindered by death.

You will hear the secret

your pale eyes

have always harboured.

 

 

Copyright © 1997 by Allison Grayhurst

3000

 

 

First published in the “Wascana Review”

 

You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

because-of-course.m4a

 

“Allison Grayhurst intertwines a potent spirituality throughout her work so that each poem is not simply a statement or observation, but a revelation that demands the reader’s personal involvement. Grayhurst’s poetic genius is profound and evident. Her voice is uniquely authentic, undeniable in its dignified vulnerability as it is in its significance,” Kyp Harness, singer/songwriter, author.

“Allison Grayhurst’s poems are like cathedrals witnessing and articulating in unflinching graphic detail the gritty angst and grief of life, while taking it to rare clarity, calm and comfort. Grayhurst’s work is haunting, majestic and cleansing, often leaving one breathless in the wake of its intelligence, hope, faith and love amidst the muck of life. Many of Allison Grayhurst’s poems are simply masterpieces. Grayhurst’s poetry is a lighthouse of intelligent honour… indeed, intelligence rips through her work like white water,” Taylor Jane Green, Registered Spiritual Psychotherapist and author.

 

 

Sheaves of Time

Posted on by Allison Grayhurst

 

Sheaves of Time

 

Sheaves of time like wispy hair

freed to the wind, fall on me,

tickling my skin with their subtle happening.

Happy are the people with soap opera love

and yellow hair.

Happy am I rolling and stretching & rolling

under the great white sun. I am moved

to deliver my package at noon. I am myself bonded

to my mission like ligaments to the bone.

Sheaves of time drift on my plate

like leaves from my favourite tree.

Call me out from my doubt and let me

love each day as new, with the kind of hope

only children hold, or lovers caressing faces,

feeling eternity on their fingertips.

 

 

Copyright © 2000 by Allison Grayhurst

3005

img071

 

 

First published in “Oh! Magazine: Ryerson’s Arts and Culture Voice”

 

You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

 

“Allison Grayhurst intertwines a potent spirituality throughout her work so that each poem is not simply a statement or observation, but a revelation that demands the reader’s personal involvement. Grayhurst’s poetic genius is profound and evident. Her voice is uniquely authentic, undeniable in its dignified vulnerability as it is in its significance,” Kyp Harness, singer/songwriter, author.

“Allison Grayhurst’s poems are like cathedrals witnessing and articulating in unflinching graphic detail the gritty angst and grief of life, while taking it to rare clarity, calm and comfort. Grayhurst’s work is haunting, majestic and cleansing, often leaving one breathless in the wake of its intelligence, hope, faith and love amidst the muck of life. Many of Allison Grayhurst’s poems are simply masterpieces. Grayhurst’s poetry is a lighthouse of intelligent honour… indeed, intelligence rips through her work like white water,” Taylor Jane Green, Registered Spiritual Psychotherapist and author.

 

 

What face?

Posted on by Allison Grayhurst

 

What face?

 

A moody afterglow – the error of thoughts, hopeless

when it comes to laughter and the power of worship.

On the table, there are self-deeds, failed

revelations, kneading and prying wide a soul

that doesn’t want to be recognized. I want you

to allow me this success, to find the flavour of your eyes,

shape them with tools and my thumbs, to press the flat

hard edges of my palms against your cheekbones, press and

form the cause of your pride, your loneliness, that seems so

important to maintain. Curled toes and chins, your chin

is becoming, shifting from strong to soft. You are neither

masculine or feminine. You are privileged – to be so

beautiful and uncommitted to a single way of looking. Look.

Your hair – long or cut off? In real life, there is no

perfect symmetry. You are bold, accurate -

your nose and the lines around your mouth is my

contemplation. Let me know you. Be courageous.

Let me pry, split and mould your inner

workings until it is clear (for both of us)

as love.

 

 

Copyright © 2011 by Allison Grayhurst

3021

 

 

First published in “Leaf Garden Press”

 

You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

what-face.m4a

 

“Allison Grayhurst intertwines a potent spirituality throughout her work so that each poem is not simply a statement or observation, but a revelation that demands the reader’s personal involvement. Grayhurst’s poetic genius is profound and evident. Her voice is uniquely authentic, undeniable in its dignified vulnerability as it is in its significance,” Kyp Harness, singer/songwriter, author.

“Allison Grayhurst’s poems are like cathedrals witnessing and articulating in unflinching graphic detail the gritty angst and grief of life, while taking it to rare clarity, calm and comfort. Grayhurst’s work is haunting, majestic and cleansing, often leaving one breathless in the wake of its intelligence, hope, faith and love amidst the muck of life. Many of Allison Grayhurst’s poems are simply masterpieces. Grayhurst’s poetry is a lighthouse of intelligent honour… indeed, intelligence rips through her work like white water,” Taylor Jane Green, Registered Spiritual Psychotherapist and author.

 

Book review of the River is Blind paperback:

“Allison’s poetic prose is insightful, enwrapping, illuminating and brutally truthful. It probes the nature of the human spirit, relationships, spirituality and God. It is sung as the clearest song is sung within a cathedral by choir. It is whispered as faintly as a heartbroken goodbye. It is alive with the life of a thousand birds in flight within the first glint of morning sun. It is as solemn as the sad-sung ballad of a noble death. Read at your peril. You will never look at this world in quite the same way again. Your eye will instinctively search the sky for eagles and scan the dark earth for the slightest movement of smallest ant, your heart will reach for tall mountains, bathe in the most intimate of passions and in the grain and grit of our earth. Such is Allison Grayhurst. Such is her poetry. THE RIVER IS BLIND is a must-read,”  Eric M. Vogt, poet and author.

 

 

Endure

Posted on by Allison Grayhurst

 

Endure

 

the brilliant fractures,

repetitions of wars and slaughterhouse squeals.

Once more, brought to the tower, looking

over – so easy to sway and not think of the

consequences. So easy to crash the wine bottle

over the piano stand and stop the bad music playing, forgetting

there are so many things better left unexplored,

like feelings that extinguish boundaries,

that are soft as loneliness or under-appreciation.

Sunglasses always worn. Endure, wait for fullness or for medication,

wait for that one hour to be adorned by another’s desire,

embroidered into another clothes – when wounds and failures,

(for that hour) are reduced, overpowered.

Moon mountains and muscles,

patterns build life. God,

there is creation without you – there is everything -

grandfathers, butterflies and sand dunes.

Unpredictability is glorified. Minds rejoice,

gaining rules, workable explanations. Endure,

why must I? Why, when denied

a boat, a bed, a simple wild hand roaming? Love is absurd.

Love is you God, and you are outside of all this, waiting for an invitation,

tender as a new mother’s nipple, flowing.

 

 

Copyright  © 2012 by Allison Grayhurst

BookCoverPreviewWallpaper Stars

 

 

First published in “Nostrovia!”

 

You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

endure.m4a

 

“Allison’s poetic prose is insightful, enwrapping, illuminating and brutally truthful. It probes the nature of the human spirit, relationships, spirituality and God. It is sung as the clearest song is sung within a cathedral by choir. It is whispered as faintly as a heartbroken goodbye. It is alive with the life of a thousand birds in flight within the first glint of morning sun. It is as solemn as the sad-sung ballad of a noble death. Read at your peril. You will never look at this world in quite the same way again. Your eye will instinctively search the sky for eagles and scan the dark earth for the slightest movement of smallest ant, your heart will reach for tall mountains, bathe in the most intimate of passions and in the grain and grit of our earth. Such is Allison Grayhurst. Such is her poetry,”  Eric M. Vogt, poet and author.

 

 

We sorrowed far when the sky tore,

Posted on by Allison Grayhurst

 

We sorrowed far when the sky tore,

 

but moments of union bent us

to glimpse a lavish paradise, yielding

to our bodies stripped of speech,

becoming portals to the ever-now,

our aggression was holy

as we hunted for sacred acquittal.

 

Evolution, we often think of being what we are -

counsellors to elevate the potency of each other’s dread.

Talk is a hood, a roughly-strewn path to our tortoise-tread. Touch

is precision, absent of air, rattling staircases, galactic

in its suction of sand and hair and pores

that voice complaints and monetary aches,

tethered to this cruel house.

 

We live inside the march, ruined by darkness.

On this earth, we have one pasture. Churches will not do for us

what they do for others. We have outgrown

our guilt, our last names and the bitter sword.

 

Our colours are common only to us, thickened

by our mischief-tar and unspoken humour. Ours is hushed

and chasing, dripping with moods, unreflected in the polished

jewellery.

 

On a new planet we will be remembered,

congregating among the fractured

 as a shaft of gracious amalgamation.

 

Drenched with this mercy, we will be a light switch

that spares no memory or obligation,

brightly displaying the decayed and burning,

colliding in composite, fashioned by our fusion.

 

Among the first fully twined, what we are

will sprout then thrive, be immune to misinterpretation.

Dimensions we will enter as an interchange, our feet warmed against

the soil of the moon, locking calves in place,

digging and dropping, basking

on the plains of our emancipation.

 

 

Copyright 2012 by Allison Grayhurst

BookCoverPreviewWallpaper Stars

 

 

First published in “Pyrokinection”

 

You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

we-sorrowed-far-when-the-sky-tore2.m4a

 

“Allison’s poetic prose is insightful, enwrapping, illuminating and brutally truthful. It probes the nature of the human spirit, relationships, spirituality and God. It is sung as the clearest song is sung within a cathedral by choir. It is whispered as faintly as a heartbroken goodbye. It is alive with the life of a thousand birds in flight within the first glint of morning sun. It is as solemn as the sad-sung ballad of a noble death. Read at your peril. You will never look at this world in quite the same way again. Your eye will instinctively search the sky for eagles and scan the dark earth for the slightest movement of smallest ant, your heart will reach for tall mountains, bathe in the most intimate of passions and in the grain and grit of our earth. Such is Allison Grayhurst. Such is her poetry,”  Eric M. Vogt, poet and author.

 

 

Recovered

Posted on by Allison Grayhurst

 

Recovered

 

The light that fell in the fish’s

mouth was a light that came loose

from the predator’s paw.

And a thousand moons have died

like the blue whale and the harp.

Since then I have been surrounded

by a dryness that killed my ferns and the

tender, drooping lily. In summer, the

ghost is the future and the bride is

the first one sleeping. I called in my skin

to the humming river. I wanted my darkness

to dance and faith to run through me like

the smell of peppermint leaves.

This was the thing asked for. This was the thing

received. Grace nestled between the joints

of two extremes, and lucky was my drink.

I believe in you – the fire is your smile,

and the soft infant underfoot is your heart and seed.

I have felt a flicker of your shape in a Spanish sunset

and in my father’s last goodbye.

Sometimes I am a skeleton, other times, only flesh.

But today I remember the bounty

of all my journeys, and I love you. I am amazed.

 

 

 

Copyright © 2000 by Allison Grayhurst

3005

img071

 

 

First published in “Poppy Road Review”

http://poppyroadreview.blogspot.ca/search/label/Allison%20Grayhurst

 

You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

recovered.m4a

 

“Allison Grayhurst intertwines a potent spirituality throughout her work so that each poem is not simply a statement or observation, but a revelation that demands the reader’s personal involvement. Grayhurst’s poetic genius is profound and evident. Her voice is uniquely authentic, undeniable in its dignified vulnerability as it is in its significance,” Kyp Harness, singer/songwriter, author.

“Allison Grayhurst’s poems are like cathedrals witnessing and articulating in unflinching graphic detail the gritty angst and grief of life, while taking it to rare clarity, calm and comfort. Grayhurst’s work is haunting, majestic and cleansing, often leaving one breathless in the wake of its intelligence, hope, faith and love amidst the muck of life. Many of Allison Grayhurst’s poems are simply masterpieces. Grayhurst’s poetry is a lighthouse of intelligent honour… indeed, intelligence rips through her work like white water,” Taylor Jane Green, Registered Spiritual Psychotherapist and author.

 

 

If it is empty then it is empty

Posted on by Allison Grayhurst

 

If it is empty then it is empty

 

Perishing like wasps in wet tar,

we can’t claim an answer

but only wear our raincoats,

acting out past wounds, meditating

by watergardens where amphibians breed,

owners of the pond.

 

Perishing enough to create parables

to be sold to our advantage,

holding hands in the summer or after a bath.

We look through windows, keeping

vigil with homebound strangers, unlocking cupboards,

storing gifts on laundryroom shelves.

We welcome the red squirrel, make love

most afternoons, tie-dye our t-shirts.

burning colours hotter at the edges.

 

We meet old mentors perishing,

drunk and mutated, mentors who taught us

to read the lines in our palms, how to find music underwater,

poetry under siege, sometimes showing us

the pitter-patter pace of caterpillars on a damp park lawn.

 

Depths pushing out like a well-nourished womb,

depths we perish in, drained of desire,

listless in the light. Don’t bother complaining,

we were made to perish, grow a revolutionary peace

in the crisp leaves of burnt sage, discover mercy

in a backwards fall.

 

 

Copyright © 2013 by Allison Grayhurst

BookCoverPreviewWallpaper Stars

 

 

First published in “Kritya”

http://www.kritya.in/0808/En/poetry_at_our_time4.html

 

You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

 

“Allison’s poetic prose is insightful, enwrapping, illuminating and brutally truthful. It probes the nature of the human spirit, relationships, spirituality and God. It is sung as the clearest song is sung within a cathedral by choir. It is whispered as faintly as a heartbroken goodbye. It is alive with the life of a thousand birds in flight within the first glint of morning sun. It is as solemn as the sad-sung ballad of a noble death. Read at your peril. You will never look at this world in quite the same way again. Your eye will instinctively search the sky for eagles and scan the dark earth for the slightest movement of smallest ant, your heart will reach for tall mountains, bathe in the most intimate of passions and in the grain and grit of our earth. Such is Allison Grayhurst. Such is her poetry,”  Eric M. Vogt, poet and author.