Zen Walk

Release the washing

and just set sail.

Born from hurt and from frustration,

the dirt upon you will never come clean.

The battle within the game

will play out the same – body parts

will deplete then start to pile.

Make an impression outside the circle,

foiling the laws that hold you in place,

declaring your place on the mound.

None of it is real

if you don’t want it to be.

Even death will not free you from

the heavy grip, not from the debt accumulating.

Only an angel’s vision, the one Jesus revealed,

only setting sail, releasing your assignment

will release you.

Simply love and let go

of expectation. Master

waiting, listening, waiting.

The animals know this –

taking, giving,

freely

void of gratitude

immune to resentment.

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Copyright © 2024 by Allison Grayhurst

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First published in “Raven Cage Zine” March 2024

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KziCD-bCLEHpu7HuqF-ipNutR-5Bf_Gx/view?pli=1

https://allisongrayhurst.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/RavenCageZine88.pdf

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You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

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Bread & Fruit

Under the deed

the golden intention is hidden

willing to conquer

made-up realities,

fantasies drooling into the brain.

I asked for hope and was given

great love. Although exhausted

I can still reply authentic,

even with enthusiasm.

Honour is pronounced as natural integrity.

Feasting on the yolk, a time when

childishness is reduced to non-consideration,

and even gone are aggressive jealousies and

the rules of the perpetually damned.

Now you are in the sun

like in a dream you have dreamt of for so long.

Strong and capable, the power of liberty

blazing through your pours, into

the rivers and into the seas

everlasting.

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Copyright © 2024 by Allison Grayhurst

.

.

First published in “Raven Cage Zine” March 2024

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KziCD-bCLEHpu7HuqF-ipNutR-5Bf_Gx/view?pli=1

https://allisongrayhurst.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/RavenCageZine88.pdf

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You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

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Bound to

         Tear apart tomorrows’ boundaries

and be identical to water,

taking your cue for movement from the wind.

The same way self-respect is chiselled at

by compromise, poverty seduces the mind into despair.

         Let it heat up. purify and find a harmony

unusual in its longing and continuance.

         I loved you but now I have no urgency or desire.

You are yes and also no.

I can’t say why I can’t hear your music or live

advancing a future beneficial to the eternal stream

and to myself personally.

I don’t know why futility clings

to me like a barnacle, latching on, lingering

one day to the next, crusting my skin

unrecognizable.

         I have no solution to eradicate this quagmire

or wash myself of this fiction and allow your reality

to take hold.

The same way life has lost all its questions,

colours get frayed, braided as one into

a dull flat grey.

         I see only flaws and the inevitable fate

of those flaws.

I cannot lift myself or script

a worthy chapter.

         Tear this apart and take me under,

to witness life bulbous, translucent and

so far removed from my bony heavy mass.

         I cannot labour here another day,

brooding in defeat.

         I cannot love you and I need help

to love you again, feel my dismemberment

dwarfed, unequalled

by your mercy.

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.

Copyright © 2024 by Allison Grayhurst

.

.

First published in “Raven Cage Zine” March 2024

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KziCD-bCLEHpu7HuqF-ipNutR-5Bf_Gx/view?pli=1

https://allisongrayhurst.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/RavenCageZine88.pdf

.

.

You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

.

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