Vow

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The noise broke

by the garden where I loved you

like I loved the truth,

where my bones drowned in your darkness

and my war was unlocked like the need

for completion that you promised but never

could attain. This wilderness

of power, purposelessness and extremes I laid down inside of

to be beside you and the softness of your mouth

and the elixir of your touch

became mine, grew like a second body

merging with my own like death does

with cold eternity.

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Copyright © 2008 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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First published in “Fine Flu Journal”, 2014

http://fineflu.weebly.com/allison-grayhurst

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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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Review of ‘The Many Lights of Eden’:

“’The Many Lights of Eden’ is a journey: a journey of the heart through youth, anguish, struggle, spiritual awakening, grief, death, love, loss, guilt, struggle, despair, hope, surrender, God, sensuality, imperfection, motherhood, aging, the vanquishing of the devil, indeed, many devils, the inevitable fall from perfection and the casting off of old wineskins for a new one. Perhaps speaking of this book as a chronicle of spiritual maturing would be more accurate, the realization that there is spirituality within imperfection and that handmade temples cannot hope to compete with the spiritual temples within each of us. ‘The Many Lights of Eden’ is a diamond. It is a beautiful collection of insights. Allison Grayhurst’s thoughts and writings are a deep well. Drink from it, for the water is clear and crisp. This collection is a MUST-READ,” Eric M. Vogt, author of Letters to Lara and Paths and Pools to Ponder. 

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Acceptance

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I first felt

the longing with little comfort,

as a shape with sharp edges.

I dared myself into a corner

and lost even the impulse for serenity.

In the grey afternoon, coming home,

I saw an inscription in the space

between clouds and knew

I had outgrown looking for signs –

The wind is a river and a house (any house)

is a dead log left in the elements, harbouring life

in its dead crusty dampness.

I had come full circle just by surviving,

back to the longing that existed before –

this time, void of grandiose significance,

existing now like an urge, strong as fire, natural

as deformity.

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Copyright © 2008 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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First published in “Oddball Magazine!”