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Other Side
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Killed in the cloud
that ripples softly.
Believing we would be triumphant
made it so, and being dead we
learned a new way to rise and praise.
The music lies down in the seas,
so I hear the dolphins hum
and see octopi sway.
Madness is part of our heritage
but also our navigating star.
Whisper of the wonder we walk through each day.
Away from the dull chaos of the common bar
this is a new plateau, a hawk
in our backyard.
Up and dancing, the ground and air
join together to say –
we were never alone.
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Copyright © 2002 by Allison Grayhurst
amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst
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First published in “Chicago Record Magazine”, 2014
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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Reblogged this on The ObamaCrat™.
Madness is our heritage… Some of us get there sooner than we’d prefer. 😉
This line says it all:
“Believing we would be triumphant
made it so, and being dead we
learned a new way to rise and praise.”
Oh my goodness, I’m there, I see it, feel it – am stunned by it:
“The music lies down in the seas,
so I hear the dolphins hum
and see octopi sway.”
Line by line I image an entire book:
“Madness is part of our heritage
but also our navigating star.”
This sentence I could adopt as my anthem, paste it to my forehead as my best state of mind when I do achieve it:
“Whisper of the wonder we walk through each day.”
I just read last night that Patricia Cota Robles says the elemental realms (I prefer an inclusive term of balance versus saying: kingdom) have always been with us – though the majority of humanity think tales of fairies and other nature spirits are but fantasy and myth:
“Up and dancing, the ground and air
join together to say –
we were never alone.”