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Difficult Neighbours
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It is hard enough to
relinquish privacy, to love
the tilted child running across
our lawn and shake hands with
the thinning curve of a shadow,
and yet by the standards demanded,
love must be most given when
the enemy appears, when the stone has hit the window
and the fence is knocked down.
Love must be that thing that rises
like a balloon above the forest fire,
and rises when every instinct bares its claws.
And we, the givers of the jewel have no excuse
to hate from inside closed doors,
nor to offer our smiles only when it suites us.
Now is the time spoken of, when the sandbox has
been robbed, when the treeline has been plucked,
and boundaries need to be set.
..
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Copyright © 2002 by Allison Grayhurst
amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst
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First published in “The Poet Community” May 2017
https://www.thepoetcommunity.com/9969/difficult-neighbours-a-poem-by-allison-grayhurst
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Published in “Lucidity Poetry Journal, Volume 31, Number 4 Winter 2017”, October 2017
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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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