New Commitment
In the wilderness of my dreams,
never shining a colour I could own
as a bluejay, its feathers.
How many worlds must I enter
to peel away to the light?
How to gather sand and build a rock?
And at night,
even love’s generosity
is not so glorious,
even happiness cancels out
a great intensity.
I think strength means
knowing how to suffer
properly.
Strip me of this darkness and
let me lean against a beating chest.
I am not to be scattered like a weakling seed
or tossed from shoulder to shoulder
like a child without a home.
In the solid middle I will dive,
driving away my rage and the stuff
of distraction that devours
the better workings of my heart.
Copyright © 2000 by Allison Grayhurst
amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst
First published in “The Chicago Record Magazine” August 2015
http://magazine-record.blogspot.ca/
http://magazine-record.blogspot.ca/2015/08/a-day-for-my-own-darning-of-socks-in.html
http://magazine-record.blogspot.ca/2015/08/change-let-it-come-like-wave-with-salty.html
http://magazine-record.blogspot.ca/2015_08_01_archive.html
Published in “The Writer’s Literary Muse”
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.
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lovely…so lovely….
One of my favorite.
Brilliant. Beautiful. Fortifying.
A light in the storm.
excellent, to hear you say it imbues it with gravitas…love lines 12,13,14….