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On Foot

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I have seen alligators

enchant the innocent

into their swamp parlour.

I have tasted the earth,

transfigured in its nuclear playground.

I have been lifted into a violet sunset,

charred with soul-shattering burns.

I fell into winter’s heaviness,

plunged my body into a chilling aqueduct –

stayed, sleeping out the human panic.

 

Lovely day to be freed of all

attachments: Let the storm revolve

around this abnormal world. Let childhood

serve as a consolation for withdrawing,

aged faces.

In a room a decade passes.

We walk in bewildered, we walk out unchanged.

 

This way, I move upward – toward blackness,

the edge of eternity.

 

I take seat beside the paradoxical judge.

 

I dream, a hundred miles away

from a new beginning.

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Copyright © 1997 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

 

First published in “Vine Figure Poetry Page” November 2015

http://vinefigure.blogspot.ca/2015/11/on-foot-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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