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When One Falters
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The cold and conquered spheres
of a love once endowed with light,
but ruined by faithlessness,
wedges between winter’s strength
and night’s repelling dread.
Always him, thirsting for chaos
to consume, treading on atmospheres
immersed in false perfection. Never him
mourning a tender cry, but crying
of vengeful abandonment, spawns his
curse into every nearing hope.
And she, alone, surrendered to the sacrifice,
pursues a new devotion, walks
from his contagious self-contempt,
loving not his potential, but the memory
of his striving heart,
(once fresh with expectation,
now extinguished, turned against itself
like a scorpion cornered).
She alone, accepting the lonely oblivion
of loss, the unquenchable incompleteness, rises
from day to day on mortal ground,
restoring.
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Copyright © 1997 by Allison Grayhurst
amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst
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First published in “Bewildering Stories, Issue 706” March 2017
http://www.bewilderingstories.com/
http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue706/blurb.html
http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue706/one_falters.html
http://www.bewilderingstories.com/bios/grayhurst_allison_bio.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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