.

Husband

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by you, by the light

I fall asleep. Because you are

my vowel, my “welcome home’ and

my sea in summer, I will sit

naked for you, never needing someone else.

I will be ready for winter,

for childbirth,

and days of stagnant pain.

Because you give wounds without evil,

a perspective of beauty in the weeds

and worries . . . because your faith

is unbroken by bitterness and others stand

against you trying to defeat

your incomparable strength . . . because

you carry the courage of a saint,

the energy of a child, a body

of perfect symmetry, for you I will

kill my myth and desperate needs.

I will join you on your lake where

mystery and safety meet and the living

gather – individual, whole.

.

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Copyright © 1997 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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First published in “Seeds”, 1997

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You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

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“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.