Making up questions

Making up questions

to fog the edge of our clarity.

We journey along, colourful,

undressing, resting little, opposite

of taking a stance, a stand against

another’s point of view.

Would it flash when we crack, and

would the wind take us six beats closer

to our death, offer some refuge from

the tedium tick of reiterating rituals

fueled by habit? Acclimatized. But not up here,

on the dry dry plain, freed of proselytizing

and rivers fat with this food, that

cup of water. We have been warm and now we are shot,

unable to don our dilemmas well. There is no

easy-to-open window or entourage

to hook us up with a ladder,

no place under the bed or in the linen closet to hide

and give hope in spite of the ensuing horror.

We leap to explore, though inertia is always the obstacle.

Problems seduce like textures, filling the talk. I saw it all

in some gum stuck under the table,

as we dined on our ripened suffering, and our veracity ended

in another fool-hardy freeze.

Fundamentally, we are our own culture.

We are crazed as lit candles by the vent.

We can’t love with logic, be hairy-legged sages, casual

at the fork in the road, conjuring a capacity for true meditation.

We can’t be nurtured with formalities

or play-acting acts of kindness.

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First published in “Writing Raw June Issue” June 2015

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“Allison’s poetic prose is insightful, enwrapping, illuminating and brutally truthful. It probes the nature of the human spirit, relationships, spirituality and God. It is sung as the clearest song is sung within a cathedral by choir. It is whispered as faintly as a heartbroken goodbye. It is alive with the life of a thousand birds in flight within the first glint of morning sun. It is as solemn as the sad-sung ballad of a noble death. Read at your peril. You will never look at this world in quite the same way again. Your eye will instinctively search the sky for eagles and scan the dark earth for the slightest movement of smallest ant, your heart will reach for tall mountains, bathe in the most intimate of passions and in the grain and grit of our earth. Such is Allison Grayhurst. Such is her poetry,” Eric M. Vogt, poet and author.

“Grayhurst is a great Canadian poet. All of Allison Grayhurst’s poetry is original, sometimes startling, and more often than not, powerful. Anyone who loves modern poetry that does not follow the common path will find Grayhurst complex, insightful, and as good a poet as anyone writing in the world today. Grayhurst’s poetry volumes are highly, highly recommended,” Tom Davis, poet, novelist and educator.