.
Beggar Island
.
Long this beggar island
where the sky above starves
for praise and the nerves
of every breathing
are ill with restlessness.
Long this beggar island
where the mauled flowers suffer
on porches bare of rocking chairs
and wondrous eyes.
Long like a day alone is long,
like the waiting for a lover’s call
or miracles or summer.
Long this beggar island
where voices behind curtains,
behind sadistic sarcasm,
call the innocent to supper
to harm what once was free.
Long this beggar island
where no covenant is kept
and all and all yearn
for home.
.
.
Copyright © 1991 by Allison Grayhurst
amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst
.
Published in “Little Voice Leaping” November 2015
http://littlevoiceleaping.blogspot.ca/2015/11/beggar-island-poem-by-allison-grayhurst.html
.
First published in “The Muse Journal” 1993
.
You can listen to the poem by clicking below:
.
“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.
Reblogged this on The Militant Negro™.