Lessons at the End of the Rope

Lessons at the End of the Rope

Be there to let the night wind in,

let it fill your bones with its darkness,

knead its spikes into each nerve,

until collapsed, unrecognizable, you

see yourself primal, stripped to the root

of ancestral fear, until you see

your house on fire, and all your children trapped.

Then begin with involuntary surrender

and let your eyelids hang limp and

the towel of your dignity too.

Let loneliness be your inheritance prize,

not the public judging eye.

Let the empty schoolyard be your bed.

Believe all the more within your doom

though God’s love can appear pitiless

in the framework of time, it will arrive

fresh-faced, answering and apparent

when you trust the hood and ways

of the tide.

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First published in “Kritya Poetry Journal” January 2015

Kritya Dec 1 - Kritya Dec 4 Lessoms at the end of the rope

http://www.kritya.in/0902/En/poetry_at_our_time4.html

http://www.kritya.in/0902/En/poetry_at_our_time.html

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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.

Review of The Longing To Be:

“The contents of Allison Grayhurst’s book The Longing To Be are both personal and universal and are described in such thematic and golden terms that one can see that a lot of thought has gone into each line. The poems are written mostly in free verse throughout, with both rhythm and soul weaved into them. For some poems, the layout seems experimental, and there is definitely a playfulness in the way that the words and verses fall onto the page. Others do conform to a “norm”, whatever that is. All are dramatic and thoughtful. These are layered poems with new horizons presented to the reader in every re-read. The effect is to keep things fresh with poems that constantly surprise in spite, and because of, the number of times being read. I thoroughly recommend The Longing To Be as a poetry book to study carefully and cherish far into the future,” poet Brian Shirra.