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Adrift

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Stripped of temper

and the tossing blue.

The sky weighs on me like a globe.

Beginning in the curve of my tongue, I hide

my sorrow like an eel.

I dive past daybreak

into the ditch of midnight.

Guilt is my patched umbrella.

I am only a few feet from home –

a penny in my pocket, a chain

I cannot lose. I want to learn

of pastures where the dying are saved

by prayer, where each captive beast

is released and love is not compared.

Reptiles in the morning clouds.

A snake around a leaf.

I hope to build a boat for patience.

Clinging to a fragment of a tree

I count each schoolless fish,

and tilt against the tide.

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Copyright © 1997 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

 

First published in “Smashed Cake Review” Issue 1 (Sidereal Journal)

 

http://smashedcakereview.wix.com/smashedcake#!blank/cfvd

http://www.siderealjournal.com/#!issue-one/cjgx

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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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