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Bellythroes of God

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The rawness behind the mastery,

the way to speak of the bellythroes

of God and kneel while doing so,

kneel not from the hindered place of    

God        and       I,

but from knowing it is all God even

your self is God, and you are and God is love wider than air,

more abundant than eternity. Kneel

because this love is both personal and absolute,

it is reaching to you alone while

spreading thick the blaze of stars.

Kneel because for a fraction of a second you

know it is never God who stops giving, but it is

you who stop receiving, you who block

the constant flow, you who deflect it with your habits,

boredom and fear. That God is always there but that

you only feel God’s presence when you decide to,

when you let the barriers crack and split a

sliver in your daily husk of coasting existence.

Sometimes too, when grief becomes the sword this

soft word never prepares you for –

when with this word grief

you begin to hear not only the sorrow but also the scream

that hits like a hurricane pulling a child from

your breast. And there it is grief in all its monstrous

proportions. There it is, the very thin line

between God and chaos

with the soul’s ultimate peace at stake. Faith is the bridge.

For the faithless in grief would either go mad or harden like

little pellets in a mid-February storm. The faithless would

not know how to cope and stay whole.

Kneel because you know God is the dream we all seek

whether we it know or not.

God is the goal of all our striving –

the financier nestling in the fat, protective arms

of worldly security, the intellectual

devouring ideas like solutions,

ideas as a path to lead to some mysterious

ever-complex cerebral calm,

the soccer player feeling her victory in her torn ligaments

and in the shafts of her sweaty hair –

We look but we do not name it as such.

We look but God still is not the priority,

not the weight of all our emotions and thoughts,

not the bulk of our dilemmas, and not

the subject of our intimate talk.

God is something to hide from, the one hope

we all innately look for in prayer books

or in politicians. But God is not something

to be looked for, God is simply something to see.

God is my cup of restive tea. God in my shopping cart.

God in the standard and not-so-standard things –

in a teenager or a brick wall,

in an animal’s unexpected tenderness or

a dull piece of box.

God is not something to discover

but something to finally, wholeheartedly acknowledge.

God is and we are when we embrace

the boundless directed compassion of God,

when we realize that God is the only one thing we need

that can grow to be stronger than gravity

and the cold desperation for survival.

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Copyright © 2002 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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First published in “New Mystics” August 2017

You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

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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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