Slowly the builder builds

but the miracle-maker is quick –

enormous change, dreamt-of-no-longer.

The end-result is a shock of grace

and the depths of God’s power displayed,

gifted for no deserving reason but love

and the faith that the receiver

has in that love, welcoming that love.

Mustard seed blooming in seconds,

why look under the blankets or walk

the steady path? Matter is a wave dipping,

flowing, curvatures actualized,

only incrementally understood.

Sticky fields surrounding,

demanding interaction

as the master-builder alters creation in a blink,

with compassion stronger than a stormy sea,

stronger than death or deformity,

strongest still in the peace

of utter surrender, after cellular breakdown,

after defeat, after defiance is broken,

this love floods like a wind, gathering velocity,

gathering together proportionally all things

perfect, flawed, absolutely divine.

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Copyright © by Allison Grayhurst 2025

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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First published in “Winamop” December 2025

https://www.winamop.com/ag2500.htm

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Published in “Raven Cage Zine” December 2025

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KW0UWFfIqyNpYjP2KeJwmAfDqAIlS-ZD/view?usp=sharing

https://allisongrayhurst.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/RavenCageZine99.pdf

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You can listen to the poem below:

Star

I think if I was a trillion-year-old

star blazing, always in deep transformation,

pulling planets into my orbit and asteroids

and the tips of angel-wings, bypassing,

touching, fearless, as bright or brighter

manoeuvring with unexpected harmony

then remembering would be easy – to see

the past as a sealed perfection, no matter

how apparently flawed, to see myself

as the same

then I would vibrate in a place where there is

no guilt, no lack, and all I do

and all I can not do would be set as

a rock on a shore –

full of dents, instructions and veins

of rich (sometimes glowing) colours inside

it would be enough to be that rock

or that star – one thing, whole,

changing without struggle,

combusting or eroding

without attachment, without pain.

.

Copyright © by Allison Grayhurst 2025

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

.

.

First published in “Winamop” December 2025

https://www.winamop.com/ag2500.htm

.

.

Published in “Raven Cage Zine” December 2025

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KW0UWFfIqyNpYjP2KeJwmAfDqAIlS-ZD/view?usp=sharing

https://allisongrayhurst.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/RavenCageZine99.pdf

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.

You can listen to the poem below:

Out

I asked to be let out

from that unwanted accomplishment.

I asked to shed my shame, my duty

and the hard-core call of doing time.

It was taken down and away from me,

along with so much more.

Guilt, and worldly bondage

also fell along with security,

along with a strange, twisted pride.

Knuckles down, hands still folded.

In my head are ghosts of patterns dissolved

but are still haunting. Ways of being I don’t have to

carry are dropped, but my empty arms are stalled

in position, humbled by uncertainty.

Set free and starting over, but not yet started,

just starting to try to etch out different

possibilities, a solid surging becoming.

Whiffs of passing currents,

rich aromas that entice briefly then fade.

Whiffs I cannot capture and keep,

not now, maybe never,

let out, dumbfounded,

helpless, screaming, just born.

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Copyright © by Allison Grayhurst 2025

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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Published in “Synchronized Chaos” February 2026

https://synchchaos.com/synchronized-chaos-first-february-issue-tba/

https://synchchaos.com/poetry-from-allison-grayhurst-17/

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First published in “Poesy Place” January 2026

https://www.poesyplace.com/out-a-poem-by-allison-grayhurst

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You can listen to the poem below: