Category Archives: Excerpts from Book 18 “Fire and more,” Edge Unlimited Publishing (2016)

The Stain

Posted on by Allison Grayhurst

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The Stain

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It seems it has been there forever. But

if I think back, I remember

when it happened – dark, sticky

with a faint repugnant scent,

avoiding it, so as to not soil

my shoes, avoiding because

What was it? Paint or tar?

Whatever it was it was most

probably toxic, not supposed to be there

where children ride their bikes, walk

their scooters, or hold hands with their

dead-pan caregivers or mothers

talking on cellphones,

holding both phone and child’s hand

with equal pressure.

I still avoid it like a crusted-over wound turned

to a scar, turned to a permanent deformity.

I have wondered why no one has every cleared

it up, chalk-drew over it,

around it, even the sparrows avoid it and I think

everyone who walks by, walking home or to the subway

pretends not to see it, because it does not belong there –

there with the sidewalk sweepers and garden planters.

It is an aberration – in summer, when

the snow melts, when the snow first falls.

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Copyright © 2015 by Allison Grayhurst

Fire and more cover - Copy

Make the Wind cover

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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First published in “The Literary Nest, Volume 2, Issue 1” April 2016

The Literary Nest 5The Literary Nest 4The Literary Nest 1 The Literary Nest 2 The Literary Nest 3

https://theliterarynest.com/vol-2-issue-1/poetry/allison-grayhurst/

https://theliterarynest.com/vol-2-issue-1/

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Make the wind contentsMake the wind The Stain

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Scars full 3Scars full 1 Scars full 2Scars The Stain 1 Scars The Stain 2

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You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

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“Grayhurst’s poetry is a translucent, ethereal dream in which words push through the fog, always searching, struggling, and reaching for the powerful soul at its heart. Her work is vibrant and shockingly original,” Beach Holme Publishers.

“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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See

Posted on by Allison Grayhurst

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See

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I see you now like I didn’t before,

see the eclipsing cataclysmic drive,

heavy in its consumption, consuming

me with images of you and the upper reaches

of your forehead, upper scope of divine desire,

filtering down my throat, into arm sinews, fingers

and finally my teacup, drinking again.

Why did you make me see,

give me urgency, anxiety unquenchable?

Hot-lip inheritor, a catastrophic omen, cutting down

my log house, cutting up the loving stars.

 

I see you now and cannot see again

ideals to strive for, homesteads of subterranean warmth.

Wait under water, wait beside the fleshy fins of mauled

corpses. This reality is mine, although I tried

to make something different, tried to grow great

gardens in the sand.

 

I see you now – illusionist,

collector of willing followers, a games keeper,

selling me out to see how devoted I remain,

to see how bravely I live after I see, after this fall.

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Copyright © 2015 by Allison Grayhurst

Fire and more cover - Copy

Make the Wind cover

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

.

.

Published in “The Wagon Magazine, Volume 1, Issue 1” April 2016

The Wagon Magazine 1The wagon magazine issue 2The Wagon Magazine issueThe Wagon Magazin Issu SeeThe Wagon magazine issue bioThe Wagon Magazine 2 The Wagon Magazine 3 The Wagon Magazine 4The Wagon Magazine 5 The Wagon Magazine see 1 The Wagon Magazine see 2 The Wagon Magazine bio

http://thewagonmagazine.com/

http://thewagonmagazine.com/?s=allison+grayhurst

http://thewagonmagazine.com/post/poems-by-allison-grayhurst

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Make the wind contentsMake the wind see

Click to access Make_the_Wind20160404Allison_Grayhurst.pdf

.

Scars full 3Scars full 2 Scars full 1Scars See Scars See 2

http://scars.tv/cgi-bin/framesmain.pl?writers

.

You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

.

“Grayhurst’s poetry is a translucent, ethereal dream in which words push through the fog, always searching, struggling, and reaching for the powerful soul at its heart. Her work is vibrant and shockingly original,” Beach Holme Publishers.

“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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If I knew this haunting

Posted on by Allison Grayhurst

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If I knew this haunting

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Melted, swung high over the sea,

plunging into the perishing darkness.

No one sees me, single as a stone,

madness on my island even with gifts

of peaches, blueberries, sunlight and sun-birds.

Windows are never here. The truth is

a deep-throat dread, lower belly drain, water gone,

shadow in between. Swing over a mound

of dry bones that used to be flowers, hummingbird

retreats. Shattered glass greenhouse in winter’s embrace.

Nothing flows. It tried to flow and for

awhile I can remember the small animals,

remember ease while breathing, myself

more silence than flutter.

I can remember walking on high wet grass –

rolling fields all around, walking to keep

from eclipsing, determined to walk, and not

burn at the roots.

 

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Copyright © 2015 by Allison Grayhurst

Fire and more cover - Copy

Currents - pastlife poems cover 4

Make the Wind cover

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

.

.

Published in “The Wagon Magazine, Volume 1, Issue 1” April 2016

The Wagon Magazine 1The wagon magazine issue 2The Wagon Magaine If I knew The HauntingThe Wagon magazine issue bioThe Wagon Magazine 2 The Wagon Magazine 3 The Wagon Magazine 4The Wagon Magazine 5 The Wagon Magazine If I knew this haunting 1 The Wagon Magazine If I knew this haunting 2 The Wagon Magazine bio

http://thewagonmagazine.com/

http://thewagonmagazine.com/?s=allison+grayhurst

http://thewagonmagazine.com/post/poems-by-allison-grayhurst

.

Make the wind contentsMake the Wind If I knew this haunting

Click to access Make_the_Wind20160404Allison_Grayhurst.pdf

.

Scars full 3Scars full 1 Scars full 2Scars If I knew this haunting 1 Scars If I knew this haunting 2

http://scars.tv/cgi-bin/framesmain.pl?writers

.

You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

.

“Grayhurst’s poetry is a translucent, ethereal dream in which words push through the fog, always searching, struggling, and reaching for the powerful soul at its heart. Her work is vibrant and shockingly original,” Beach Holme Publishers.

“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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