No Other Way

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Allison Grayhurst

No Other Way

Is there a voice

as sharp as a cut nerve,

or an answer to unravel

this relentless groove?

Is there divinity in stagnation

or purpose to a dead womb?

Can even a great love withstand

evenings of always the same

bleak gestures – a snapped jugular,

a lost future?

Is it burning like an enemy in our closet

or like a miracle denied?

Is it a triggered revolver in the pit

of all our youthful promise or a transmuting faith

that rides this kissless wound?

If we give this back or give it up will it be

the bed to hold us, will it nurse our roots

to flower, or drop us unwanted?

Will there be rescue from this slumbering void

or just the iris of our common eye looking, looking back

at its old and destroyed self?

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

First published in “Thirteen Myna Birds” June 2017

http://13myna.blogspot.ca/2013/02/13.html

Published in “1947, a literary journal” June 2017

http://1947journal.tumblr.com/post/161522570274/no-other-way-by-allison-grayhurst

You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

“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.