Published in “Treehouse Arts” and “Natasha Ganes’s blog”, January 13, 2018
River – Songs from the poetry of Allison Grayhurst
https://dianebarbarash.bandcamp.com/
https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/dianebarbarash3
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/river-songs-from-the-poetry-of-allison-grayhurst/id1293420648
River – Songs from the poetry of Allison Grayhurst
https://dianebarbarash.bandcamp.com/
https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/dianebarbarash3
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/river-songs-from-the-poetry-of-allison-grayhurst/id1293420648
Link to the song:
Link to the poem:
https://allisongrayhurst.com/2013/12/01/animal-sanctuary/
Link to the song:
Link to the poem:
https://allisongrayhurst.com/2014/02/06/10365/
Link to the song:
Link to the poem:
https://allisongrayhurst.com/2013/05/23/river-2/
http://synchchaos.com/decembers-synchronized-chaos-issue-level-up/
http://synchchaos.com/poetry-from-allison-grayhurst-set-to-music-by-diane-barbarash/
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A Little Bit of Magic: That’s what happens when a singer/songwriter and a poet team up
Links to poems:
https://allisongrayhurst.com/2013/05/23/river-2/
https://allisongrayhurst.com/2014/02/06/10365/
https://allisongrayhurst.com/2013/12/01/animal-sanctuary/
River – Songs from the poetry of Allison Grayhurst
https://dianebarbarash.bandcamp.com/
https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/dianebarbarash3
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/river-songs-from-the-poetry-of-allison-grayhurst/id1293420648
River – songs from the poetry of Allison Grayhurst
https://dianebarbarash.bandcamp.com/
https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/dianebarbarash3
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/river-songs-from-the-poetry-of-allison-grayhurst/id1293420648
The Poem:
Animal Sanctuary
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He turns his hawk head
to view the shells of turtles streaking
the still-shroud of water in tanks
as blue as sky.
He lifts a leg and talons tensed,
pivots to defend against an enclosing shadow.
With whitish eyes and an impossible urge
to fly, he hops along his man-made perch toward
the cages where squirrels leap
from metal to wood, scattering like leaves
in unpredictable flurry.
He listens to the ducks’ lipless sounds.
Spring, he will never experience again, nor know
the scent of a pent-up life released like
sunflowers blooming, or the feel of the moon,
colder but more comforting than being touched.
He is without time or tribe,
and like fire, he haunts
by just being.
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Copyright © 1998 by Allison Grayhurst
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First published in “UC Review”, 1996/1997
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River – songs from the poetry of Allison Grayhurst
https://dianebarbarash.bandcamp.com/
https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/dianebarbarash3
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/river-songs-from-the-poetry-of-allison-grayhurst/id1293420648
The Poem:
Beyond The Grave
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If all the seeds fell like blood
or blood like seeds into
the ravenous earth and time
was a wagging tail in the dark
then I would know that death would come
by any reason and be a blessing
all on its own. But as it is, death is
the hollow spot of the living – some with
grief and others with fear, and me myself,
it is memory that unbuttons the flesh of my chest
to leave me poked and burning.
It is the hill I climb and stumble
down its rocky incline whenever I return
if only once a day
to meet death’s stalking eyes.
It is not my heart that fails me,
but the things outside
like the shadow on the neighbours’ window
and the frightening madness of so many strangers.
It is here and there like an insect
on my wall, like the fatherly love
I’ll never find again in another’s eyes,
but is with me in the coming autumn air,
and in the quietude of these joy-filled days.
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Copyright © 2002 by Allison Grayhurst
amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst
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First published in “Veil – Journal of Darker Musings”
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River – songs from the poetry of Allison Grayhurst
https://dianebarbarash.bandcamp.com/
https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/dianebarbarash3
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/river-songs-from-the-poetry-of-allison-grayhurst/id1293420648
The Poem:
Girl
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Under the willow tree a girl
was standing, lonely with
the worst of nights ahead.
They said
drink from the tarpit waters and swallow
the oysters that lost their shells.
She saw the drug the wind made
though she did not let it shift her steadfast heart.
Everywhere the notion stood
that fighting back is better than
the tender wave, better than
empathy and believing in affection.
The willow leaves have gone brown and the girl has moved
beside a cliff. She dances as though she
could not fall. And though they gasp to pity
her poor body against rocks and ridges,
she continues to move like a beautiful sound,
sure of the hand that guides her.
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Copyright © 2002 by Allison Grayhurst
amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst
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First published in “Out of Our”, 2012
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River – songs from the poetry of Allison Grayhurst
https://dianebarbarash.bandcamp.com/
https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/dianebarbarash3
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/river-songs-from-the-poetry-of-allison-grayhurst/id1293420648
The Poem:
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River
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I will run my breath across your eyelids,
go to you, trace the edges of your hands,
finding infinity inside your torment. I will
drift into you like wind and you will not mind
my lips like a concentrated shadow on your skin,
darkening but leaving no weight. You will let me
be inside your picture, a background to your lyrics,
softly at first, I will heal the red in the whites of your eyes.
I will release my wardrobe for you and you will be the mania
that I climb through to reach tranquility. I will
cup your flesh and stretch you through this intimacy because
I own you as you own me and it is not a bad thing, not
blasphemy or anything
to fear. It is your hands, mine – these
poignant burial grounds that have been excavated,
these days of standing close, depending upon the ease
of our mutual exposure. I will speak in your ear and you
will step into my voice
like stepping into a river.
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Copyright © 2011 by Allison Grayhurst
amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst
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First published in “InnerChildPress” 2012
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