.

The Long Pitstop

.

When I woke up,

I was a daughter of God,

for a while as pure as

a river, moving towards

a place of cascading surrender.

It took years for the cockroaches

to enter my house, to gnaw away at my toes

while I was sleeping – poverty and broken hopes and

death spiraling around me like a dust storm

I could not see through.

Even then, my faith remained queen,

and the love I found from others and God – even in death –

opened new passages of perseverance and renewal.

I had a child. Then two, and the singing never stopped.

Death came again and age stuck to my skin like wet sand.

Poverty dosed and soaked my bed

with its despairing drug, and hope

for a way out, fossilized, completely lost its pulse.

My future became a stuffed bird

I kept in a drawer to look at and admire its inert beauty.

Many weeks now I wonder

if I will be claimed, pulled from this sea of floating fish,

from this asylum where nothing ever pushes through

to the bright land of clarity.

I am waiting for a bell of my own, a kiss

of divine liberation.

.

.

Copyright © 2008 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

.

.First published in “Gossamer Poetry Page” November 2015

http://gossamerpoems.blogspot.ca/2015/11/the-long-pitstop-poem-by-allison.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.

Reviews of ‘The Many Lights of Eden’:

“’The Many Lights of Eden’ is a journey: a journey of the heart through youth, anguish, struggle, spiritual awakening, grief, death, love, loss, guilt, struggle, despair, hope, surrender, God, sensuality, imperfection, motherhood, aging, the vanquishing of the devil, indeed, many devils, the inevitable fall from perfection and the casting off of old wineskins for a new one. Perhaps speaking of this book as a chronicle of spiritual maturing would be more accurate, the realization that there is spirituality within imperfection and that handmade temples cannot hope to compete with the spiritual temples within each of us. ‘The Many Lights of Eden’ is a diamond. It is a beautiful collection of insights. Allison Grayhurst’s thoughts and writings are a deep well. Drink from it, for the water is clear and crisp. This collection is a MUST-READ,” Eric M. Vogt, author of Letters to Lara and Paths and Pools to Ponder. 

 “I have been slow at responding to reviews for Allison Grayhurst due to summer’s busy days, however she brings life to each poem, heart to the images and everyone should have a collection of Grayhurst Poetry,” Ann Johnson-Murphree, poet.

.

 .