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What We Know

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Hold the heart in a field of salt

and heal the bitter taste,

for all has been like

the crossing of the guards

and the moon is shining brightly on my back.

I believe in your song but

the flood has risen and no help came,

and the chapel denied us as we pulled

the weeds from our prison and grew ourselves

a garden of togetherness.

Being here, I still don’t know the name of

any star but I am content enough

loving you, and feeling the daily explosive joy

of raising our child.

There are no fists to clench or rooftops to

yell our resolve from. It is not a giving up

but a path of no resistance. Work

and grief may leave us alone. Work

and possibly we’ll slumber out of this quicksand. Work

and the maggots may not pierce our skin.

For soon we, and all of we, will be dead, and today

is so very important.

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Copyright © 2002 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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First published in “The Creativity Webzine, Volume 1, Number 10” October 2015

  

http://moultoniancreativity.weebly.com/poetry.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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