a slight alteration not a full smile where teeth reveal themselves just a curled corner of lips lift your cheek rising upward winking your eye those unfamiliar to your face wouldn't notice the half-smirk so quickly retreating behind the coffee mug but I saw it as real as sunrise and I don't need more to know you felt joy today © Ali Grimshaw 2021 dVerse Open Link Night - Come join the fun.
How we name ourselves keeps us separate, collected or behind fences. What if we lost all labels to the wind? Started over with a single hello. Here is a new and rare being a species my brain cannot categorize outside of any box, never encountered right before my own human eyes. How wonder would fill me with the awe of you. © Ali Grimshaw 2021 dVerse - Poetics:Connections A wonderful community of writers reside on dVerse Poets Pub. Come join in the fun. Photo of mural taken in Auray, France. 2019
Some say, Who am I? I need to find myself. I have lost myself. Some ask, How do I go on? How do I begin again? What matters now? There are those who are living as question marks and those who refuse punctuation. When your heart burns away, is cracked to irreparable or crushed to stillness is that the end or the beginning of learning to love? © Ali Grimshaw 2021 Three quotes from a man who left this world too early, Martin Luther King J. May we remember his words.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?'”
“At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.”
This dancing couple has grace swinging and swirling across the floor while never leaving each other's side. One with a worn toe from accenting turns The other steady centered, to spin in balanced pleasure. I long to slip into their magical trance it has been a long while since they have been out on a date. As I pull them from the closet I smile with the miles of songs we traveled together. Both have matched many steps to anxious cold handed partners tentative hesitance of beginners ease of familiar firm arms. This pair is a portal to playfulness open to all ages, they remain timeless in their relationship. A long lasting love story between them to be lived again and again until their soles have worn away. © Ali Grimshaw 2021 Come join the fun on dVerse with Poetics: Object Poems Dedicated to all my social dancing friends and anyone who is missing the joy of dancing together.
Palms upward as hands face sky open spaces between fingers relaxing into what has been a time of gentle and harsh scrubbing of the heart. Every inch of skin Brillo pad raw. An exfoliation of what has been. My fists, no longer clenched in tight survival, trust in slow unfurling. Pain tingling as blood returns to fingertips. Learning feet reground my trunk to an upright position, toes rooted past sand into bedrock. Freeing now agile hands to sift through the helpful lessons caught in my soft palms as promises while unneeded thoughts fall through finger spaces to join other decomposing conversations of days when I didn't know listening. Composting the no longer serviceable into nutrients for the new words to come. © Ali Grimshaw 2021
Coming together, across great distance to cherish poems and write together is hope in action. It is my heart work to facilitate a safe space to hear your inner voice and experience authentic connect. Wherever you live I would love to meet you. No writing experience needed. All voices welcome.
Curious I knew I was not up to it this thing called life. I was as if nameless not seen and without countenance or provenance And so from the beginning I have been curious with what I could be even who I could be. It’s been a road. But what a delight finding out. What blissful joy to discover the secrets of oneself. To see the patchwork patterns revealed. Even moments of brilliance. I look on with wonder and I ponder where do you suppose all that life came from? By Lilli Ann Carey
I am grateful for Lilli Ann's permission to share her poem from a recent writing circle. Writing together provides a mirror for us to process life in a safe place. Curious about writing yourself forward as 2021 unfolds? Email met at coaching@aligrimshaw.com
“Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet / confinement of your aloneness / to learn / anything or anyone / that does not bring you alive / is too small for you.” – David Whyte
tug and pull, I must
still it doesn’t fit anymore
not after this year
hundreds of breaths have past
in between arrivals and goodbyes
and I am changed
now I have new thoughts
I pull on like the wool sweater
you used to wear on your
most difficult of days.
Thoughts that have rooted
myself to you
intertwined with the me
I have yet to meet.
© Ali Grimshaw 2021 dVerse Open Link Night - Join a friendly community of poets.
Happy New Year!
Wishing you deep full breaths of peace.
As we stand together the ocean’s roar a comfort lullaby of constant. You squeeze my hand. I echo the motion in return. Reliable rolling waves, we count on when the world is crashing. © Ali Grimshaw 2017
When the crack widens to an unknown view fear can squeeze in between rough edges of darkness quickly sliding in to expand like a balloon a barricade of shadow to seal the entrance. Yet seekers of light will never be dismayed by tricks of perspective their wisdom of the season's shifting songs sing them forward. With eyes of love illumination is present for all allowing forgiveness to set another place at the table where lanterns burn long into the night. © Ali Grimshaw 2020
