.

Dad, I think of you

.

You fade like a painting in

the sun. After five years,

I remember your voice, the weight

of your walk and the beauty of your proud, kind eyes.

But I cannot fit you in.

I cannot imagine your place with my children or your

responses to my teacup dry

of those other talked-about accomplishments.

I cannot place my load onto your brave and loving mind,

nor need I prove to you my passion

and the quality of my drive.

It is all under water, unforetold, vacant

of those clung-to prophecies.

It is like a draft by a door that can no longer be controlled.

It just enters and chills but either way, it cannot be helped.

Sometimes days go by and you haven’t held my thoughts,

and then I retreat, shocked, guilty, propped up before all

these ghosts. Time kills eternity like a footprint on

untouched sand. I love you, but who I am now, with you,

would have never come to stand.

.

.

Copyright © 2004 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

.

First published in “The Screech Owl”

http://thescreechowl.com/the-apple-tree.html

.

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.

.

.