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Fidelity

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Further in

into intimacy, surrendering

the rosary beads, the Buddha beads,

the Krishna beads – necklaces

of superstitious worth, a means to be compensated

with miracles for work done – disciplined activity

performed with the anticipation of divine participation –

enduring boredom with karmic pride. But nothing works

that way or does it let go into voluminousness

just because of accumulation. Why can’t I be

the things I see? Why do I resist collapse, clasp

onto linear principles, desperate to be justified.

Intimacy is everything ever sought – to have God inside

filling, overtaking every other sensation. Movement

like locked loins or other body parts in

synchronized ministrations, joining another’s pulse,

extending the body’s confines. I will not want for more

but this surrender – the stillness of receptivity coalescing

with the arching activity of advancing without

expectations of results, to be delivered

into the rhythm of tangible grace, giving into a relentless

rich flow that knows taste and substance but no set speed.

I know staying this way is not easy,

not when the bedsheets are moth bitten and money

is stolen at the corner store.

I know teeth need fixing and foundations

are fragmenting, but how can that matter

when the whole is at stake?  When whatever is taken,

explored and received is there to guide further in.

When God is asking

for this union to be achieved, offering peace but

no ego reprieve – no other lovers, no compromise.

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Copyright © 2012 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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First published in “Chicago Record Magazine”

http://magazine-record.blogspot.ca/

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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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Book reviews of the River is Blind paperback:

“Throughout (The River is Blind), she (Allison Grayhurst) employs 
reiterated tropes of swallowing and being consumed, spatial fullness 
and emptiness, shut- in, caverns, chasms, cavities; angels, archangels, 
blasphemy, psalms; satiation or starved. With a conceit of unrequited sex as “my desire”, nocturnal emissions, awakening in the morning, the poet lives at capacity, uninhibited, dancing,” Anne Burke, poet, regional representative for Alberta on the League of Canadian Poets’ Council, and chair of the Feminist Caucus.

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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. THE RIVER IS BLIND is a must-read,”  Eric M. Vogt, poet and author.

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