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Not Afraid

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I speak and climb the edges

but my voice falls

like used candy onto

turned-up ground.

I dream and chisel, and

sometimes so utterly sure

of what my days have taught me

and of the flowers they have nurtured,

I lie down and am content.

But the world withers at my doorstep

and my fire is just for show. Just another soul

in the great cavity of home and anonymity.

Like a love that cannot live unless

it is given, my words crack as they pile up

in filing cabinets in rooms where time runs on and out.

I feed between heartache and wait on the predictable

fashion of clever tricks, waiting

for an alibi.

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Copyright © 2002 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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First published in “Stone Face Literary Zine” November 2015

http://stonefacelitpage.blogspot.ca/2015/11/not-afraid-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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