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For My Children

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Grow like the seekers do

in the aftermath of an atomic-bomb dawn.

Hunger like the artists do for a tid-bit of happiness

found, held for longer than the activity of their art.

Awaken from betrayal, a harder stone,

a softer soul, sure of nothing but of God.

Burn, until your burning cannot be denied,

and as you walk, they will say “There goes

a star, a sun, a galaxy of fire” Burn until

every muscle aches and the tension pulls

the labyrinth of your heart and mind into a straight line

with straight direction – nothing wasted.

Love, because it is hard, because it is

unusual to have the courage needed to love.

Love, because there is nothing else, because

it is the only heaven known, because it is

the only thing impossible made possible, and

when the dream is over, it will be

the one reality left embedded,

going further than, deeper than

the nucleus of your cells.

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Copyright © 2010 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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First published in “Both Sides Now”

http://bothsidesnow.freeservers.com/backissues.htm

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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.

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The River is Blind chapbook review:

“An existential curiosity courses through Allison Grayhurst’s latest collection. It’s Grayhurst’s physical constraints that comfort us: a box sitting at the top of the stairs, housecats in states of wakefulness and sleep, the “snails and moss” that preoccupy her. Indeed, The River Is Blind situates itself firmly in the familial but imbues those relationships and domestic touchstones with a disembodied calm. Ambition and disenchantment linger along the fences of Grayhurst’s property but she remains candidly in the present.

“In lesser hands, muses such as these might’ve resulted in verses of weak-kneed contentedness. But Grayhurst’s voice remains one of detachment, webbing daily pleasures into greater meditations on love and God. Through spiritual lens, poems like “Everything Happens” and “Flies” counteract steadfast faith with insights on the material world, a separate world; a place where people grind flowers for honey,” Ryan Pratt, Ottawa Poetry Newsletter, January 30, 2013

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