Author: Ali Grimshaw

With gratitude.

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 18 Comments

In January 2016 I chose to begin sharing my poems publicly.  This was scary but I am glad that I took the leap. I never knew that I would end up connecting with people around the world when I started to blog. It has been the best adventure of this year of living. I am in celebration and gratitude to VerseWrights for publishing six of my poems today. VerseWrights is a wonderful daily, online poetry journal.  Thank you to all my readers and for those that support poetry.  Let’s keep the communication going around the world. PEACE is possible.

Sending love across lands and oceans,

Ali

It’s not possible

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 6 Comments

Can there ever be too much whole face listening,

a time when acknowledgement was no longer needed,

when kindness was overdone?

No desire for extra hands to lighten the load?

A day when being vulnerable was a waste of courage?

Letting another see your frailty a chance not worth taking?

A moment of too much love?

Walk out onto your street and look.

Those downcast eyes are the reply.

Run now, its not too late.

© Ali Grimshaw

Where do you belong?

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 13 Comments

Who decides where you fit in?

Walking into a room full of others

feeling like you don’t belong, not one of them.

Severed, the other, a misfit.

Open faces smile, glance your way.

But you have already closed the door

on belonging.

Doors open both ways. Exit this one.

Return again with this knowing

you are not held separate. Proving your worth

was never a requirement. The family of all things*

has been waiting for you.

Take this place, a space saved just for you.

Anywhere in the room will work.

Acceptance comes from inside.

* Acknowledgement to Mary Oliver’s words from her poem “Wild Geese”

© Ali Grimshaw 2016 (photo taken on the Oregon coast.)

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Discover Challenge – Finding Your Place

Let’s go down to the river.

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 16 Comments

 

IMG_4039Let the current caress

ripples lap at your errors

knee deep in, “I can’t believe I did that.”

wash away mistakes of this day

to leave the clear clarity of water.

Toes numb from cold reality.

Stepping out onto the bank

with new beginnings dripping

from your feet.

© Alicia Grimshaw

As I was finishing this poem I remembered this old spiritual song.  It is amazing how our minds work. I had not heard or thought of this song for many years.  I have been humming it for days thinking of the countless others who sang this same song going back, year after year after year. I somehow feel a connection with those voices from the past. If you want to hear it click on this link to youtube. Let’s Go Down To The River To Pray.

 

Sending a package

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 27 Comments

I will write you blue sky

sunlight on yellow flowers.

I will write you a single snowflake

magnified in all its delicate brilliance.

I will write you a cocoon of comfort

a blanket of love you have never known

a full envelope, arriving on the wind, for the day

you need it most.

© Alicia Grimshaw 2016

image

Photo taken on a family trip to Italy 2016.

 

Unwind

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 7 Comments

Thinking in reverse

months tipping, like dominos

to revisit that summer day.

Longing for this cleansing pool,

an offering of chilled calmness

encircled by stone, here I joined

the river of slow movement,

pulling at my rapid pulse.

Plucking the notes ever slower.

Heartbeat dissolving

until I was

just being

water.

© Ali Grimshaw

The Daily Post Photo Challenge – RELAX

Liberation To Come

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 11 Comments

Within this cold capsule

seen but unable to expand

my frozen limbs ache with

limitations of movement.

Let me thaw, stinging with pleasure

extending all the way to my toes.

To dance in the breeze again.

© Ali Grimshaw

Pic and a word challenge – Winter

 

My light is shining.

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 5 Comments

 

A big shout out to the blog, The Drabble, for generously sharing one of my poems today, The Field.  It is an honor to be a part of your blog.  Follow the link to give it a read and visit their wonderful collection of poetry.  Then take a look at their new quarterly e-zine, The Drabble Quarterly.

Connecting with readers from around the world gives me a feeling of hope.  I can’t say thank you enough for reading my words and sharing your comments with me.  Let’s keep spreading love across the world.  We are all part of the human family.

Be well,

Ali

PS  This photo was taken in Seattle, WA. This is the famous gum wall.  Anyone is free to participate by leaving some gum behind to mark their visit.