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I  Am This Creature

(drenched in mute history)

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I am this creature

let loose from the grave,

but still without a Sunday

or a bed of more than weeds and worms.

I am this liar, trapped in fantasy,

a carcass hanging upside down, all cheers and woes

set at high volume.

I was with hunger, a rage of flies on soiled food,

desperate to know fulfillment.

I was a girl, knowing nothing of drugs, but helpless

just the same, a slave to all my girlish visions

of the coming days of promised rapture.

I was a young woman, wearing drab and loose clothes,

never looking in a mirror, talking in tongues,

clenching confusion as a crutch and giving glory

to any glory-seeking teacher.

I am this woman, strong shouldered, a bit threadbare

but wanting

never to rekindle that drowned flame –

a creature in a world of foreign wilderness.

I’m circling, circling a solitary stone.

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Copyright © 2008 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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First published in “South Florida Arts Journal”, 2013

http://www.sfaj.org/

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You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

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“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.

Review of ‘The Many Lights of Eden’:
“’The Many Lights of Eden’ is a journey: a journey of the heart through youth, anguish, struggle, spiritual awakening, grief, death, love, loss, guilt, struggle, despair, hope, surrender, God, sensuality, imperfection, motherhood, aging, the vanquishing of the devil, indeed, many devils, the inevitable fall from perfection and the casting off of old wineskins for a new one. Perhaps speaking of this book as a chronicle of spiritual maturing would be more accurate, the realization that there is spirituality within imperfection and that handmade temples cannot hope to compete with the spiritual temples within each of us. ‘The Many Lights of Eden’ is a diamond. It is a beautiful collection of insights. Allison Grayhurst’s thoughts and writings are a deep well. Drink from it, for the water is clear and crisp. This collection is a MUST-READ,” Eric M. Vogt, author of Letters to Lara and Paths and Pools to Ponder. 

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