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BloodsuckerDeath
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Embracing the bloodsucker
in naked sand, in the element
of rain and stormy skies.
Loving the bloodsucker for a moment
and then living within its inevitable stride.
A year of midnight, a cocoon to peer through,
but still the air is not my own.
Sleeping beside its warm and ruthless tummy,
who knows what the shadow beholds – the scythe,
the splitting apart, the lungs that find no breath.
I cared for your children,
I wrapped them like a necklace around my throat and
they taught me the infinite expressions of grief.
I was once a lake. I am now a dried-up pond.
The sweat is the seed, is the missing piece
that gives grace to every smile. Hunt me
no more, reveal to me the final plateau.
Loss and beautiful corpses, and still beyond
November’s soil, you have revealed the ways
of indestructible love. For that I am grateful.
For love not you is absolute. This milestone you have given
has become my ship – now leave me to flow away
from the weight of this mourning.
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Copyright © 2000 by Allison Grayhurst
amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst
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Published in “The Stray Branch Fall/Winter 2016” October 2016
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First published in “Novelmasters” April 2015
http://www.novelmasters.org/category/poetry/
http://www.novelmasters.org/five-poems-allison-greyhurst-i-still-think-of-you/
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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 Militant Negro™.