Category Archives: Excerpts from Book 10 “Seamless – A Collection of Love Poems” Edge Unlimited Publishing (2012)

Redemption

Posted on by Allison Grayhurst

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Redemption

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A look of strange purity,

the type of a true gentleman

anchoring a violent nature,

the type of innocence rediscovered out of evil,

by the unexpectancy of falling in love

and of being loved

after so much grief, so much guilt, so much

time.

A nature – gentle and commanding,

full of every colour but grey,

potently sexual, but never crude,

burdened by a clear code of justice

that drives that nature to be

irrevocably lonely

without being reduced.

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Copyright © 2008 by Allison Grayhurst

3015

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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Published in “PoetryMagazine” December 2015

http://www.poetrymagazine.com/editors_choice/general_editor_autumn07.htm

http://www.poetrymagazine.com/editors_choice/winter15_16/allison_grayhurst_page2.html

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First published in “Imaginary Conversations Lit” October 2015

http://imaginaryconversationslit.blogspot.ca/2015/10/redemption-poem-by-allison-grayhurst.html

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You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

https://allisongrayhurst.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/redemption.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.

Reviews of ‘The Many Lights of Eden’:

“’The Many Lights of Eden’ is a journey: a journey of the heart through youth, anguish, struggle, spiritual awakening, grief, death, love, loss, guilt, struggle, despair, hope, surrender, God, sensuality, imperfection, motherhood, aging, the vanquishing of the devil, indeed, many devils, the inevitable fall from perfection and the casting off of old wineskins for a new one. Perhaps speaking of this book as a chronicle of spiritual maturing would be more accurate, the realization that there is spirituality within imperfection and that handmade temples cannot hope to compete with the spiritual temples within each of us. ‘The Many Lights of Eden’ is a diamond. It is a beautiful collection of insights. Allison Grayhurst’s thoughts and writings are a deep well. Drink from it, for the water is clear and crisp. This collection is a MUST-READ,” Eric M. Vogt, author of Letters to Lara and Paths and Pools to Ponder. 

 “I have been slow at responding to reviews for Allison Grayhurst due to summer’s busy days, however she brings life to each poem, heart to the images and everyone should have a collection of Grayhurst Poetry,” Ann Johnson-Murphree, poet.

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Things I Must Learn

Posted on by Allison Grayhurst

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Things I Must Learn

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        To speak like I should

in the wayfaring night, to

hold your hand when the shelf cracks

and the books are all read, when the fridge

carries only last week’s fruit.

              To lean my head on your heart and

let you speak your need, instead of curling

under the blankets like an angry, disturbed thing.

              To kiss your lips when nothing is going on, when

the dried flowers crumble to the floor and

the guitar strings have snapped, when summer

is only a month away and the city prepares in the same

dull way.

              To touch your arm when the shower curtain rips

and a spider’s eggs lay behind the bathroom mirror.

              To be kinder than I’ve been,

to wrap a hand around the back of your cold,

delicate neck.

              To take pictures of you

in the afternoon, loving you better

when darkness inevitably descends.

 

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Copyright © 2000 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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First published in “the chicago record magazine” August 2015 and in “Wicked Sixe’s”, Fall 2015

 

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

http://magazine-record.blogspot.ca/2015/08/a-day-for-my-own-darning-of-socks-in.html

http://magazine-record.blogspot.ca/2015/08/change-let-it-come-like-wave-with-salty.html

http://magazine-record.blogspot.ca/2015_08_01_archive.html

chicago record- Wicked Sixes

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You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

https://allisongrayhurst.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/things-i-must-learn.m4a?_=2

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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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Of The Same Cloth

Posted on by Allison Grayhurst

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Of The Same Cloth

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    A perfect balance

of mystery and understanding

we contain in our

fiery hour.

              Like a gull

against the sky, we merge under

the thick thighs of God.

              You enter me like water

enters earth and I am within

you like a fish inside a wave.

              Wave of your exotic beauty,

always capturing me, new to me, a taste

of perfect fulfilment. You bare the teeth

of a stranger, a hand of delicate,

tireless motion and I sink in the snows

of your spell, chilled by your intensity, by

the beautiful form of a man beside me.

              You give to me the gallery of your secrets

as I give to you the skin of my defence.

We are the lucky one:

              marigolds and cathedral stones

              line our weathered pockets.

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Copyright © 1998 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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First published in “Nazar Look, Year 5, Issue 44” September 2015

      

http://issuu.com/kirim-tatar-kitaplari/docs/nazar_look_44_online#download

http://www.nazar-look.com/

Nazar Look_44_Online

http://www.amazon.com/Nazar-Look-2015-Sem-Issue/dp/1516853288/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1439484088&sr=8-1&keywords=nazar+look

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First published in “Boston Poetry Magazine”

http://bostonpoetry.wordpress.com/tag/allison-grayhurst/

 

You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

https://allisongrayhurst.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/of-the-same-cloth.m4a?_=3

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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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Review of The Longing To Be: 

“The contents of Allison Grayhurst’s book The Longing To Be are both personal and universal and are described in such thematic and golden terms that one can see that a lot of thought has gone into each line. The poems are written mostly in free verse throughout, with both rhythm and soul weaved into them. For some poems, the layout seems experimental, and there is definitely a playfulness in the way that the words and verses fall onto the page. Others do conform to a “norm”, whatever that is. All are dramatic and thoughtful. These are layered poems with new horizons presented to the reader in every re-read. The effect is to keep things fresh with poems that constantly surprise in spite, and because of, the number of times being read. I thoroughly recommend The Longing To Be as a poetry book to study carefully and cherish far into the future,” poet Brian Shirra.

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