Forward – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 18 Comments

“Following love always asks us to be brave and to be brave in ways we don’t imagine we have the wherewithal to be.” – David Whyte

How you draw me in 
eyes flitting back and forth between
the stillness of height and fractured light

shining a wonder of blue perception
lines still, lines rippling
to capture my full exhale.

In this reflection, I see myself 
braver, standing taller than yesterday
aligning with the tall ones in the background

All I can say is, thank you 
for a window forward.

And yes, I will try.

© Alicia Grimshaw 2026

Join dVerse Poet’s Pub for Open Link Night. HERE
You can link up one poem of your choice.

This is a live edition, with an opportunity to join on Saturday at 10 AM New York Time. The session will run on Google Meet. Please click on the link below to join us on Saturday: 
https://meet.google.com/vbr-xvjw-eay

Photo taken at the Desert Botanical Garden, Arizona, 2025. My husband and I spent three hours here, delighting in the plants. I adore reflections and therefore have photographed many.

Planting – Poem By Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 14 Comments

“But it is not enough to weep for our lost landscapes; we have to put our hands in the earth to make ourselves whole again. Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift.” ― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

In the wind
a yearning hunger

exhales united in pain
gather into traveling rain. 

Storm clouds of resistance
blanketing the vulnerable.

We plant the seeds
again, again

as our grandmothers before us.

Apple trees to feed a future
we will never see.

Believing abundance

possible.

© Alicia Grimshaw 2026

Join dVerse Poet’s Pub for Open Link Night. HERE This poem was inspired by the quadrille challenge – Hunger.

Photo taken at my aunt and uncle’s home in Oregon. It was a great apple harvest that year.

One is Enough – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 17 Comments 

a flower
a focus
a place to lean your eyes

for a moment

when the world is blurred brutal
consider carefully your viewpoint 

follow a flower's form
find its simple scent

in a day of temperatures rising
feel the stones strongly cool
your feet

© Alicia Grimshaw 2026

This photo was taken in Croatia. When the world’s hate feels like too much, I can always trust in nature for moments of respite. Find a flower and follow its lead.

Join a friendly community of poets at dVerse Poetry Pub. Write a quadrille (44-word poem) to share with the group HERE.

What a curtain in the wind can teach you – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 14 Comments 


"All that sadness. All that anger. It is the smoke that gets in your eyes. If you do not blow it away, how can you hope to see?"
- Anthony Horowitz 


To be a curtain in the breeze.
Joining the flow of air
rising, falling,
lifting, lowering
gathering, and letting go.

I will be a curtain
hate will not inhabit my heart. I will not hold it.
Instead it will travel like airflow. 

(I expect to falter, I am only human after all. Yet, I continue to observe all that can teach me how to keep my heart soft.)

Like the curtain welcomes all that arrives,
letting it pass through 
while remaining light. 
© Ali Grimshaw 2026

Join a welcoming group of poets on dVerse Poets Pub for open link night and share a poem of your choosing HERE.

Hiking in Argentina and thankful for this time in nature.

We are Held – poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 24 Comments 


By our Mother 
you are held.

With your feet firmly grounded 
you can feel her foreverness.

Lost is a choice you don't need to make.
Claim yourself free,

choose your stance, your pace, 
and rest in the arms of her winds.

- With love for the many vulnerable.

© Ali Grimshaw 2026
Lush vegetation on a trail near Puerto Varas, Chile. The canyon of green breathing.

Mt. Osurno, Chile.

Finding Our Way – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 35 Comments 
I am a lighthouse who sometimes 
has a broken bulb.

I fear for the ships that are navigating 
dark shorelines without my beam.

I hold responsibility for safe passage 
while boats toss hand to hand by a storm. 

I appreciate you noticing my blackened filament
seeing my burnt days without judgment

offering a replacement orb to restore my beacon.

I return to rusting hulls along the shoreline with my light
watch the shadows change their appearances.

I wonder what difference my listening light
could have made in their journey.

Yet, losing our way is also how we find each other.

In darkness, trust your heartbeat navigator 
the light is there, and you will find it.

© Ali Grimshaw 2026


Please join a welcoming group of poets at dVerse Poets Pub. It is Open Link Night. Share one poem of your own HERE.

Please join us for our first LIVE session of 2026 on Saturday, January 17th, from 10 to 11 AM EST.
Click on the Google Meet link below to join us with audio and video:

https://meet.google.com/ens-tohx-wjq 

Come sit in on our LIVE (video and audio) session. Read aloud a poem of your choosing, join in the informal conversation OR simply sit in and listen. We always have people from around the globe, all speaking in English.

This photo was taken on the Oregon Coast near Coos Bay.

My Hibernaculum – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 34 Comments 

within a velvet-soft interior
with a rocking chair enhancement

humming songs of ease
murmurs of a river echoing back

pine-warmth abundance of fresh
beginnings welcoming endings

encircled by a clear frozen glaze
of quiet just rightness

overflowing contentedness
safety of the heart

© Ali Grimshaw 2025

Join a welcoming group of poets 
at dVerse Poets’ Pub 
for Quadrille #238- HERE

Hibernaculum – a noun for a winter shelter or place of hibernation

Morning Pantoum – By Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 36 Comments 


How lucky am I to wake this bright morning?
Safely carried through night's passage.
Like steadfast mountains often forgotten.
While dreams retreat, my feet find the floor.

Safely carried through night's passage.
Joining the color stream of these hours.
While dreams retreat, my feet find the floor.
River stones are worn smooth with time.

Joining the color stream of these hours.
Letting love's current ease my way.
River stones are worn smooth with time.
Hand in hand is our way forward.

Letting love's current ease my way.
Like steadfast mountains often forgotten.
Hand in hand is our way forward.
How lucky am I to wake this bright morning?

© Ali Grimshaw 2025

Join a welcoming group of poets 
at dVerse Poets’ Pub for Open Link Night. HERE

Photo taken during a stunning mountain hike in Montana.
2025



Ephemeral – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 47 Comments 

This calm is only an illusion
a photographic alteration 
of a moment, where

leaves confetti-whirl, flutter fly, fancifully
surfing wild winds with surrender.

Smiling, I accept their invitation to frolic
following one golden riffle
then a tangerine-red

in beautiful celebration 
of all things temporary.

© Ali Grimshaw 2025

Join a welcoming group of poets at dVerse Poets’ Pub. 
Quadrille Monday. HERE

Photo taken on one of my many walks through Amsterdam in 2019.

It is the season of contemplation – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 36 Comments

“We have an inner window through which we can see the world, and though it gets cloudy in life, it’s our job to wipe it clean and see things as they really are.” – Sebastian Koch

It is the season of contemplation
a time of wanting to flee while knowing stillness is the way forward.

I am seeking windows of all sizes
expansive with weatherproof panes, outlooks rippled with time.

Views to heal my confusion between rain and questions.
A skylight to observe the assurance of passing moon.

As the headlines continue to scream, I find another window holding
steadiness of trunks wide and wise from centuries, leaves of rainshine.

Curtains of my imagination sway with a peaceful breeze.
There is another way, another view, a possibility of love yet found.

I unshutter pain to let the air in.

© Ali Grimshaw 2025

The seed of this poem came from a prompt on dVerse Poets Pub and this inspiring view from a cabin in Oregon. Every time I return to this photo it settles me. 

Come join a welcoming group of poets for Open Link Night - HERE. Link a poem of your choosing.