.

Still brimming with awe,

.

and cuddling sweet against your

father’s welcoming cheek.

Still bizarre in the light of

your unique humour and stubborn

as the apple tree is strong in the

happy earth.

Turning One tomorrow and all the things

you’ve learned in that span –

to say a word, to grow in kindness and

in temperament, to laugh out loud.

All the things you still are – a soul

of amazing riches, thoughtful and gentle

and so sure of yourself.

Still entranced with all things small and new.

Still each day we awake to your beauty

as we look into your strange sea-coloured eyes

and bend to smell the strands of your wispy hair.

.

.

Copyright © 2002 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

.

Published in “Medusa’s Kitchen” July 2017

http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.ca/2017/07/peer-owlish.html

.

“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.

.

.