Category Archives: Excerpts from Book 13 “For Every Rain – a collection of early poems” Edge Unlimited Publishing (2013)

Shell of a Serpent

Posted on by Allison Grayhurst

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Shell of a Serpent

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These are great things,

you take

with your mounting neglect.

They are things cast out

of the “beautiful”, that

dig into polar ice and

fossilize there; numb,

indistinguishable.

 

And though you feel superior,

inhuman, hovering above

like the moon, with your face carved

in one constant expression, you yourself

will not give light to the

lonely, will not illuminate

for the sake of another’s need.

 

Your own pain – cunning, hunting – is

a tentacle that quivers cold-blooded

for pity’s gullible caress.

 

You distance your heart from the humble dancers.

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Copyright © 1997 by Allison Grayhurst

3000

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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Published in “Whispers…” November 2015

http://whispersinthewind333.blogspot.ca/2015/11/shell-of-serpent-by-allison-grayhurst.html

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You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

https://allisongrayhurst.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/shell-of-a-serpent.m4a?_=1

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“Allison’s poetic prose is insightful, enwrapping, illuminating and brutally truthful. It probes the nature of the human spirit, relationships, spirituality and God. It is sung as the clearest song is sung within a cathedral by choir. It is whispered as faintly as a heartbroken goodbye. It is alive with the life of a thousand birds in flight within the first glint of morning sun. It is as solemn as the sad-sung ballad of a noble death. Read at your peril. You will never look at this world in quite the same way again. Your eye will instinctively search the sky for eagles and scan the dark earth for the slightest movement of smallest ant, your heart will reach for tall mountains, bathe in the most intimate of passions and in the grain and grit of our earth. Such is Allison Grayhurst. Such is her poetry,”  Eric M. Vogt, poet and author.

“Grayhurst is a great Canadian poet. All of Allison Grayhurst’s poetry is original, sometimes startling, and more often than not, powerful. Anyone who loves modern poetry that does not follow the common path will find Grayhurst complex, insightful, and as good a poet as anyone writing in the world today. Grayhurst’s poetry volumes are highly, highly recommended,” Tom Davis, poet, novelist and educator.
 
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Green Haven and You

Posted on by Allison Grayhurst

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Green Haven and You

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I dream this early morning of

        you, trading

all you own for love.

Birds walk on water, cooing the river

        still. Two bones

lie buried beside the bank,

grey with decay, anonymous

as each fallen red-vein leaf.

        I walk to your favourite rock,

still cold from night. There are

ten stars in the sky

        visible as ten snowy owls

undone by dawn.

        I dream of you across the vaulted miles.

You live inside my forming smile and in

        the colours flooding the horizon, in

the almost-zenith sun,

advancing.

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Copyright © 1995 by Allison Grayhurst

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_page1.html

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.First published in “Gossamer Poetry” October 2015

http://gossamerpoems.blogspot.ca/2015/10/green-haven-and-you-poem-by-allison.html

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You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

https://allisongrayhurst.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/green-haven-and-you.m4a?_=2

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“Somewhere Falling has a richness of imagery and an intensity of emotion rare in contemporary poetry. Drawn in sharp outlines of light and darkness, and rich shades of colour, with a deep sense of loss and longing and the possibility of salvation, this is an unusual book by a gifted young poet. Grayhurst’s voice is one to which we should continue to pay attention.” — Maggie Helwig, author of Apocalypse Jazz and Eating Glass.

“Responsibility and passion don’t often go together, especially in the work of a young poet. Allison Grayhurst combines them in audacious ways. Somewhere Falling is a grave, yet sensuous book.” – Mark Abley, author of Glasburyon and Blue Sand, Blue Moon.

“Biting into the clouds and bones of desire and devotion, love and grief, Allison Grayhurst basks the reader, with breathtaking eloquence, in an elixir of words. Like lace, the elegance is revealed by what isn’t said. This is stunning poetry.” – Angela Hryniuk, author of no visual scars.

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When The City Speaks

Posted on by Allison Grayhurst

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When The City Speaks

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It is no small place

this devil’s field

where the leopard’s blood

runs through the streets

like a constellation

cut from the sky.

Drunkards, drug pushers,

the cold amoebas that

die without seeing a dawn.

In Chinatown, the spell is

set loose, splitting

the sun with fury.

Waxen murderers,

a barnyard of devourers.

Inside, lovers tremble,

clutched tight together

-arms, elbows, lips-

sensual and desperate,

anaesthetized by passion,

by common fear, away

from the cruel madness

that pounds & pursues

just outside the door,

where all

will never be well

or free.

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Copyright © 1991 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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Published in “The Bees Are Dead” July 2017

“It is our great pleasure to announce that Allison Grayhurst’s ‘When the City Speaks’ is our 100th publication! Grayhurst’s poem is a paradigm example of the tone and theme that The Bees Are Dead set out to promote. It presents modern urban living as a dystopia already contrived – where class is a predator, red in tooth and claw; an airborne sickness. Where ‘opportunity’ is but a taunt. 
Grayhurst’s lines are snappy and frantic, reflecting the anxiety of her city’s skittish citizens. Her imagery is bleak yet with a surreal beauty coaxed up by zoomorphic and East Asian references. A classic grayscale poem with flashes of luminous iridescence…

We are fortunate to have two more pieces from this great poet locked away safely in our hive’s vault, and we look forward to sharing these with you in the not too distant future…

– P.A-B.”

http://www.thebeesaredead.com/poetry/city-speaks-allison-grayhurst/

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Published in “Social Justice Poetry” June 2017

https://www.socialjusticepoetry.com/6226/when-the-city-speaks-a-social-justice-poem-by-allison-grayhurst

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First published in “Journal of Contemporary Anglo-Scandinavian Poetry” #3. The magazine is now called “The Journal”, 1993

  

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You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

https://allisongrayhurst.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/when-the-city-speaks.m4a?_=3

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“Somewhere Falling has a richness of imagery and an intensity of emotion rare in contemporary poetry. Drawn in sharp outlines of light and darkness, and rich shades of colour, with a deep sense of loss and longing and the possibility of salvation, this is an unusual book by a gifted young poet. Grayhurst’s voice is one to which we should continue to pay attention.” — Maggie Helwig, author of Apocalypse Jazz and Eating Glass.

“Responsibility and passion don’t often go together, especially in the work of a young poet. Allison Grayhurst combines them in audacious ways. Somewhere Falling is a grave, yet sensuous book.” – Mark Abley, author of Glasburyon and Blue Sand, Blue Moon.

“Biting into the clouds and bones of desire and devotion, love and grief, Allison Grayhurst basks the reader, with breathtaking eloquence, in an elixir of words. Like lace, the elegance is revealed by what isn’t said. This is stunning poetry.” – Angela Hryniuk, author of no visual scars.

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