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Five Days

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Five days without belief,

lost like a pebble tossed into

a deep stream.

My prayers have turned grey, culled by

despair – there but not really there.

Every ghost has come in, crowding

my upper floors. In the wastebins, in the filing cabinets,

my hands have been scraped

and there they fell – two dead weights,

lacking the strength to be lifted.

Like something left out

of the fridge for too long, my taste has

been tainted. God is a soft echo in the open air.

I hear words, but words I cannot formulate

or beckon to come near.

Five sunsets in black and white.

Five days to give in and die or to hold tight

to the thread string, the little string,

the are-you-there?-string,

to hold on and commit to never return here

for all my days remaining.

 

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Copyright © 2006 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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Published in “Eos – The Creative Context” September 2017

3 Poems by Allison Grayhurst; photo by Bea Garth

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Published in “The Writers Newsletter” October 2017

https://thewritersnewsletter.com/traditional-modern-poetry-prose-october/

https://thewritersnewsletter.com/traditional-modern-poetry-prose-october/five-days-allison-grayhurst/

https://thewritersnewsletter.com/all-our-contributors-biographies/

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Published in “Rusted Rose Poetry Forum” November 2015

http://rustedroselit.blogspot.ca/2015/11/five-days-poem-by-allison-grayhurst.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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