Episodes, cascading

Phoebus Apollo, cascade your light

around the dreary onlookers singing,

singing for the smooth edges of their many cracked bones,

for their children moving off the jagged rocks,

for the perishing of wasps in autumn,

and for the loss of those who pretended their hearts were pure.

Twice I fell away from all I knew.

Twice in one year the earthquake-volcano-tsunami

erupted, sickening my house, my loved ones

and all my belongings.

There I bent like a moist twig,

rose out of the waters, slug-like, cold like

the first touch of hot hot fire.

Once more God’s name is intricate, exact,

washing me aimless in my once

spiritual certainties.

Once more, every bridge is broken, the waters

swell, jut onto, swallowing, the shore.

My fear is a razor frantically cutting.

My panic is plural, multiplying,

tightening its barb-wire around my chest, throat,

and my eyes are hurting, pinprick pain when they open,

my eyes when they open

have gone silent, silent, blank.

Copyright © 2021 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

 .https://issuu.com/allisongrayhurst/docs/book_32_-ways_of_mercy_-_the_poetry_of_allison_gra

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First published in “Chicago Record Magazine” March 2021

https://magazine-record.blogspot.com/2021/03/consecrated-in-murky-limpid-place-you.html

https://magazine-record.blogspot.com/2021/03/

You can listen to this poem by clicking the link below:

Down Stream

Savage poison

eclipsing the Wolf moon.

Time is putrid, embracing me

like an impending slaughter.

Can’t stop the attack no matter

how hard I strain, or promise

to defend the purity of my thoughts.

It will come to no good end, going on

to this end, head in a block wrench,

dreams staggering crippled

out of sight.

Come back before

I smash my back

on a long fall down the stairs,

into the darkness, past purgatory,

past the tragically resigned.

Come on, enough of this fated disaster.

For months now I’ve held my own,

held my head high, praised

every morning with directed action.

I can’t go back, picking through the rotting carnage,

pretending, giving energy to the pretense,

when my energy is sacred, belongs

to you O God and nothing else.

Please save me from this hissing atrocity,

this lethal succubus and the flashing behind

my eyes – the gigantic war inside,

knife wielding, piercing, rein-less

and the dark blood pain.

Please O God and Jesus, breathe your light

into me, fully. Let me love you the best I can.

Is there anything I can do? Is there any chance

for a miracle?

The shades are being pulled. The dungeon steps

are steep and I am heading down,

into that familiar filthy chamber.

Please take my hand, O God, lead me

into the open air and say “Go on your way –

you are mine, no longer a stranger.”

Copyright © 2021 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

 .https://issuu.com/allisongrayhurst/docs/book_32_-ways_of_mercy_-_the_poetry_of_allison_gra

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Published in “ILA Magazine – Feature Poet” September 2021

https://www.ilamagazine.net/post/poetic-feature-of-allison-grayhurst/

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Published in “Spillwords Press” March 2021

https://spillwords.com/down-stream/

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Published in “Chicago Record Magazine”

https://magazine-record.blogspot.com/2021/03/consecrated-in-murky-limpid-place-you.html

https://magazine-record.blogspot.com/2021/03/

.You can listen to this poem by clicking the link below:

Resolved

            Forgetful, in exile,

in the fires of failure,

honouring suffering

like a story told in form,

a totem-working of visual permanence.

            I bore my marriage

to the joyous wilderness in one hand,

and sacrilegious duty

in the other.

            Today, I join these hands

to create stability, sanctuary,

creativity touching ground and discipline.

I burn the dead wood, releasing

my prisoner-identity and climb out of

the fishnet into deep fulfillment like

into a valley with a lake and untamed

foliage all around.

            The pull and tug of two lives is gone,

tension internalized as useful energy,

as something to be incorporated, harnessed,

the generator of a mature dream – a dream

with no division, bound,

and happy to be bound.

Copyright © 2021 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

 .https://issuu.com/allisongrayhurst/docs/book_32_-ways_of_mercy_-_the_poetry_of_allison_gra

.

First published in “Atunis Galaxy Poetry and anthology” March 2021, August 2021

https://atunispoetry.com/2021/03/19/allison-grayhurst-canada/

https://atunispoetry.com/2021/03/

https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/and-international-poets-and-hannie-rouweler/atunis-galaxy-anthology-2022/paperback/product-n5g48k.html?fbclid=IwAR1mKGISmlWXwnPXUy20mNRM4DKCF-zRuLxqRKVrUKuvtnRlDbDIDYsQ_i4&page=1&pageSize=4

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Published in “Synchronized Chaos” April 2021

http://synchchaos.com/synchronized-chaos-april-2021-escape-room/

http://synchchaos.com/poetry-from-allison-grayhurst-12/

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You can listen to this poem by clicking the link below: