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What I Shine For
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Smile like a caterpillar
curled in the light
and then plucked into bird food
by an unforeseen flight.
Smile under siege
for all the dreams owned and lost
and re-owned as an unrelinguishable part.
Smile and deal with what is crushed
and with what is not
but instead has sprouted a
bold beginning – a tree of strange scent.
Smile but never let it fully out
because the days spin weary
and the white has faded from the walls.
Smile, confined like a pearl where
it is set.
Smile and accept yourself
forever hanging
from this thin translucent
thread.
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Copyright © 2006 by Allison Grayhurst
amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst
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First published in “Tuck Magazine” September 2015
http://tuckmagazine.com/2015/09/04/poetry-73/
http://tuckmagazine.com/category/poetrytuckmag/
http://tuckmagazine.com/?s=grayhurst&x=8&y=8
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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™.