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In The Thighs

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Blood in the thighs like

a bowling ball moving,

rotating, heavy, at high speed

up between the

hip bones, into the heart chamber.

Nothing can stop its weight and damage,

nothing can stop its motion.

The trees say “A different face of God is etched upon

my each and every leaf.” But the beetle and ladybug

who eat the leaves do not care. And the person snipping

at branches does not care.

Through the thighs, moving

rotating, heavy, at high speed.

Call out to me

Call the number engraved into the armchair

He came like light washing over the many,

entering and cleansing only the few.

He came. He is

what everyone needs,

but the pavement is thick

and the ground beneath is rich,

saturated with worms,

moving,

thick

with worm motion

moving     at worm speed.

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Copyright © 2006 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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First published in “Iron Gall Press”

http://irongallpress.com/2014/03/19/in-the-thighs-allison-grayhurst/

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You can listen to the poems 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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