Breath from within me
floats out to join yours,
to settle on the brown ground beside
join the atmosphere’s chorus
sing with your exhale.
The tree we sit beneath
is not excluded
from this song.
Lightly soft it hums
new life down upon us.
Static on the radio
world leaders move their pieces,
play the game of war.
Under the tree
we continue to breathe each other.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017/Rewrite 2019
She had always had the word.
It greeted her in morning’s mirror.
Unescapable. An ink faded indication
underneath the white towel
used to pat her face dry.
Now heavy bangs allowed
just enough
coverage for protection.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
The need that will not stop
the need to create for ourselves
speak with our hands
scribble with our minds.
Make, shape, build
add colors from inside.
Be
bolder than
we trust ourselves to be.
We share wisps of tender fear
kept hidden from view
like a shield of insecurity
tucked behind the ear.
Wary of those that come
with a look unfamiliar.
Remember
the power of the
impermanent paint
to include.
Lines drawn
to dare a crossing
or
to encircle all.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
Street art – Lisbon, Portugal
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
My head sits
on cords of screaming tension
inability to relax into
whirl of busyness, cyclone
of storms around my being
interference between me
and the presence
I wish to give you.
Please forgive my current cloudiness.
Blow this weather to the corner of the room.
I want to sit with you.
“What is the state of your heart?”
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
Inspired by OMID SAFI – “Let us insist on a type of human-to-human connection where when one of us responds by saying, “I am just so busy,” we can follow up by saying, “I know, love. We all are. But I want to know how your heart is doing.” “
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
Anticipation of a sky in bloom.
explosions of joy for some
a trigger of fear for the newly arrived.
We the people
are the country.
Independence for some,
not yet all.
Freedom calls us.
Our diversity, our strength.
open peaceful arms
one love.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
Happy 4th of July. May we find a way to live in peace.
You look but don’t see
me. Within your view
invisible to your eyes.
Discomfort or unconscious
choice. I cannot be a character
in the story of your world.
Revisit the snapshot
years later, silhouetted,
my image lives.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
Photo taken in Lucca, Italy 2016.
Random thoughts collect in her hair.
Ideas shed by passers by
printed in fonts, large and small
nestled in her curls.
Within the crowd ideas conflict
like a crash of cymbals.
She swallows them all
continues to shift the molecules
search for a new formula
that makes sense.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
knocked down
like a tree after a storm
my trunk horizontal
broken limbs at odd angles
body left with jagged holes exposed
pieces scattered near and far down the lane
some parts even seem to have disappeared
now I think I understand how humpty dumpty felt
there isn’t a way to put the pieces back together
it is time to start again
look for fertile soil
plant myself where sunlight will reach me.
flashlight batteries - Ali Grimshaw 