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No Ground

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There are no leftovers,

no cylinder funnel to collect

and preserve extravagant prayers.

In this place, I lean but I dare not cry –

a rosebush past its prime, brittle in the sun.

I am collapsing, out loud, 

reforming every cell, painful alterations. My God

of fluid, my God, grand as, and grander than, myth –

I have cut through this horizon. I have cut

through my thick interior, and still, I’m tilting

like an old tree

unable to stand. My God,

breathe into me, make plans for my soul or let me die,

bound in this circle. My God, rain into my reservoir –

it feels so long

since I have been untethered.

There are other worlds. There is Jupiter.

My God, please repair this punctured deck

or throw me overboard.

Fill me, my God, with love,

strong enough to override the weight of this

hard endurance.

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Copyright © 2010 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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First published in “Chicago Record Magazine” June 2017

http://magazine-record.blogspot.ca/2017/06/how-sky-came-when-i-was-grainof-sand-i.html

http://magazine-record.blogspot.ca/2017/06/

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You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

https://allisongrayhurst.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/no-ground.m4a?_=1

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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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