Running, lightwave riding

       Keeping a holy flame

close to my chest, in the mornings,

deep in the base-line sleep

I throw a stone sideways – many pipes

are broken, hearts clogged with

despair, disappointments and dreams

of eternal dreams.

       Answers start up like old machines,

make noise, but cannot be useful or join

a continuous flow.

Depleted bank accounts, rough-shod carpets

and rotting wooden subfloors – all of this is the same,

but what isn’t is how I kiss high above,

feel myself and all who I love, cradled

in divine tenderness.

       Do you know love, that kind of love?

It is better than smooth skin, soft fur,

or a year away on Spanish shores.

It is dangerous because it is all that is left,

and in that lofty beauty, all else is

forfeit that doesn’t match its wonder,

simplicity, discipline.

       It has to be surrender.

It has to be in this world

of chaos, unpredictable danger

and mishaps.

It is about connections,

fumes over the swamp, fledglings left alone

to die in the too-hot sun, and

waterholes gone unreplenished.

       It is always this fear, this faith as one,

balancing, illuminated, filling up with pressure

then taking in every blessing,

the singularity of life, senseless conditions,

steel-bar limitation, pleading while satisfied,

longing while fulfilled, coat off, shoes off –

toe bent and broken, glad to still be able

to walk, to climb a chair, clean a home

and ask myself – is this freedom?

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Copyright © 2022 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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First published in “Written Tales Chapbook III” and online, June/August 2022

https://writtentales.substack.com/p/running-lightwave-riding

Freedom – Written Tales

https://writtentales.substack.com/s/poetry

https://writtentales.substack.com/p/written-tales-chapbook-iii

https://allisongrayhurst.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/freedom-written-tales.pdf

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Published in “New Mystics” July 2022

https://www.newmystics.com/lit/AllisonGrayhurst.html

New Mystics July 2022 AllisonGrayhurst-9Poems

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You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

End of the Line

Consumed like a passion

that exceeds its limited energy,

like a sorrow when anger

gets a foothold,

my anger tightens, incapable

of finding culmination or the subsiding

soothing aftermath of shame or reason.

       Around the circle, banishment from joy

and movement, the scattering of dead seeds.

       Through the circle, a chance to develop,

foster trust in the goodness presenting,

to rest my head, release the futile struggle

and devote my intelligence

to examining this foreign peace.

But the ladder has been demolished,

and I cannot climb without it

or travel the same path, going around.

I will not withstand being chained again

to such an unrelenting foe,

wearing this false face

fated to merge with and shadow

my own.

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Copyright © 2022 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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Published in “Creation and Criticism, Vol. 07” October 2022

http://www.creationandcriticism.com/loss-and-other-poems-by-allison-grayhurst.html

http://www.creationandcriticism.com/_blog/search/tag/Poet

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First published in “Medusa’s Kitchen” July 2022

http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/2022/07/that-spider-dancing.html

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You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

Harvest

Cry out –

the light is golden,

simple, with no secrets,

no detours of conniving depths

to trap the soul in a maze made of concrete

where no seed can root or sprout.

What was promised was always

the light, needed only

to be believed to be true.

Mortal dreams

Mortal spinal cords

and hopes that press like

the edge of a sword against

your soft belly.

Mortal light that gets

turned off and on again

by a switch or a changing season

is not the light of blanketing glory,

is not mercy in the pit.

Take this point in the fault line,

stand on it as it splits the crust

and everything below.

Here the light grows

like words inked on your skin,

cutting into the meat of your organs.

It is light like no brightness you have every known,

a golden penetrating, undiluted glow.

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Copyright © 2022 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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Published in “Creation and Criticism, Vol. 07” October 2022

http://www.creationandcriticism.com/loss-and-other-poems-by-allison-grayhurst.html

http://www.creationandcriticism.com/_blog/search/tag/Poet

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First published in “Medusa’s Kitchen” July 2022

http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/2022/07/that-spider-dancing.html

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You can listen to the poem by clicking below: