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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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