What Day?

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What Day?

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What day will I be like a stallion,

copper-coloured, brimming with

restlessness and love?

 

What day will I be looking at the lusting sun

and still remember the small – small

as a mouse’s eyes, small like a dew drop

or a sparrow’s swift heart?

 

What day will I know my luck has run out

and be brave with such a secret?

 

What day will the fear leave me

and when it does, will my nightmares

limp out of my skin to rot in the backyard,

gaining nothing on eternity?

 

What day will I lose my shoes,

run my road free of judgments and

the cold ghosts haunting, in pursuit?

 

What day will my being sleep,

sleep like a sculpture,

unknowing of hunger, unaffected

by its own inadequacies?

.

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Copyright © 1998 by Allison Grayhurst

3002

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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First published in “Medusa’s Kitchen” August 2015

Medusa's Kitchen Aug 1Medusa's Kitchen Aug 2Medusa's Kitchen Aug What DayMedusa's Kitchen Aug 3

http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.ca/2015/08/what-day.html

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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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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.

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Choice.

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Choice.

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I will sink your boat and struggle

with your scaly arms.

I will not let your hot sea swallow me

or let the light I earned from the birds

be extinguished in the deadness of your embrace.

One time, I was gentle with myself.

I took the remedy and widened my path.

Then you, with your ashen red-soul minions, ripped

the blood from my throat and I have been lying

here ever since, a victim – not the woman

I was made. I am not fragile, but I am of the sun

and of the darkness and I know the pure joy

of home. I cast you from my heart,

you who stole my fire, left me

weak-kneed and dependent upon an outer outcome.

 

Guide me down the shaft of this axle,

let my strength rise, dependent on only you.

I am not a single voice, ghostly in the darkness. I am

your servant – let me serve you – release me

from this fatalism, this consuming toxic tar.

Stand by my window, I will fight to save myself –

it will be just you and me at the bottom

of this grave and the demons I allowed in

and allowed to conquer.

At the bottom of this grave, I will cling to you.

Raise me up. I promise, my part will be played –

I won’t let go.

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Copyright © 2006 by Allison Grayhurst

3010

img059

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

 

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First published in “Medusa’s Kitchen” August 2015

Medusa's Kitchen Aug 1Medusa's Kitchen Aug 2Medusa's Kitchen Aug ChoiceMedusa's Kitchen Aug 3

http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.ca/2015/08/what-day.html

.

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.

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Nothing

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Nothing

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Nothing is wasted – not

time deposited into an illusion that

never was, not love laid out

like a sliced fruit, taken, then

spat back out – so utterly tasted and

so utterly refused.

Nothing is wasted, not women

counting the babies that once graced their arms,

now grown and gone, so rarely showing

tenderness or need –

not men who were babes, who were once able

to weep and were able to treat all with

unquestioned equality.

Nothing is wasted, not years spent in ambiguity

walking hospital halls, years of blood tests

and ultrasounds, offering no cure or

nameable disease.

Nothing is wasted – not poverty, not wealth,

not death, not grief.

Nothing is wasted if held out to God

held out, naked on a bed, under

the cracked ceiling.

.

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Copyright © 2006 by Allison Grayhurst

3010

img059

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

.

First published in “Medusa’s Kitchen” August 2015

Medusa's Kitchen Aug 1Medusa's Kitchen Aug 2Medusa's Kitchen Aug NothingMedusa's Kitchen Aug 3

http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.ca/2015/08/what-day.html

.

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.

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