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Teacher

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Your days were lived

scaling rooftops then

plunging into the thick, consuming

atmosphere of guilt, humiliation

and child-like extremes of love.

Your years were frantic like

under the current of an undecided wind,

yet focused in their steady intensity,

hopeful in their reliance on God and the visions

that bent you backwards and left no pretence in tact.

Your light was prophetic, almost too

much for the human mind to bear.

You gave to the beggars, never forgetting

the cold weight of ten years in chains.

Your wife was the balm for your difficult

passions, the one who held you when all was spent

and you writhed on the floor, at her feet, foaming at the

mouth like a beaten horse.

Your gift was unmatched by others who grew

beside you in vanity and glory.

Your gift was once my lifeline, remains with me

like something kindred, always

a stepping stone.

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Copyright © 2004 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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First published in “Eleventh Transmission – Issue 1” under the title “Mentor”

 

http://waxpoetryart.com/eleventh/issues/001/contents2.html

http://waxpoetryart.com/eleventh/issues/001/allisongrayhurst4.html

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You can listen to the poems my 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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