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Your voice

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is always frantic, shooting like bullets

randomly into the air. Your eyes are electric,

tottering on insanity’s indefinable edge. At the corner,

I see you. Myself, wanting to avoid the face

I once believed in, wanting to slow and vanish

before you lift your head and see me –

bright and unaware of the hesitation I harbour –

pounds in my pockets,

I have nothing to give you but trite formalities

and the illusion of ease.

I have finished with you long ago.

I have been raised up

from my desperation. I carry my lamp, fuelled

by a trust in something better.

Your son, like you, has a beautiful smile.

But in no way can he hide

his drowning – lingering for years on fear’s full shore,

serving his dark mistrust

and the cockroach he keeps under his bed.

Bless you both. Bless you

for the green grass you tried to grow.

You reached, but never far enough to make a difference.

I have no hatred. I have no longing. I have only

forgiveness.

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Copyright © 2010 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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Published in “1947: a literary journal” April 2017

http://1947journal.tumblr.com/post/159841169369/your-voice-by-allison-grayhurst

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Published in “Winamop” September 2015 under the title “Rescued”

http://www.winamop.com/poems.htm

http://www.winamop.com/ag1500.htm

http://www.winamop.com/us.htm#ag

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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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