Purgation – Poem By Ali Grimshaw

March 5, 2021 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 33 Comments

“Poetry offers the world something that’s small enough to carry close to your heart, and big enough to carry all of the ordinary things that can be encompassed in any one day.” — Pádraig Ó Tuama

Purgation

shame sweeping
disinfecting disappointment
vacuuming deeply the corners
of deliberately lost memories

I open one eye, hesitant
to take a look 
then squint until
rooted in my intention

It's possible there is
no monster of madness
in the closed cupboard of the past
just dust bunnies multiplying

and the purgation continues.

©Ali Grimshaw 2021

dVerse Open Link Night - Join a welcoming community of poets HERE.

The Architecture of Conversing

February 2, 2019February 8, 2019 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 36 Comments

Beside me, your mummers begin
repetition of words to form
a solid, something to hold on to.

As you hammer a picture in sound,
letters arrange in audible order
to hear who you are.

To speak building blocks, stack phrases
scaffold words of steel
structures to withstand tomorrow.

I am silent witness
to the rebuilding of yourself.

“The most visible creators are those artists whose medium is life itself. The ones who express the inexpressible ~ without brush, hammer, clay, or guitar. They neither paint nor sculpt. Their medium is simply being. Whatever their presence touches has increased life. They see, but don’t have to draw… Because they are the artists of being alive… – Donna J. Stone

You are the landlord

January 26, 2019January 26, 2019 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 19 Comments

Overwhelm has taken
up residence
in your brain again?

You wrote the rental
agreement, chose
the limits.

Remember, you
can evict it.

“I Reject Walls”: A 2019 Poetry Preview” by CRAIG MORGAN

“So here are a few of the upcoming books of poetry I’m most excited about, books that are keeping me from losing hope, books that remind me that, even as America is at its most divided, its language is about synthesis, about coming together, about dissimilar things that form a gorgeous and powerful whole. These books are angry, they’re afraid, they’re grieving and hoping; so am I. I’m grateful for their company.”

The power of poetry. You can’t help but want to see this list.

Begin again

January 5, 2019 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 26 Comments

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now, before you change your mind

and doubt blankets you with too comfortable

while familiar climbs onto your lap, warmly weighty

and resignation joins in to pull courage from the room

before you are left alone on the cold couch

deserted by dreams of sitting under

a green tree of sunlight.

If only…

September 9, 2018September 19, 2018 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 18 Comments

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if I could hand out

flying with clouds, beyond pain,

relief your eyes seek

Right by your side

August 25, 2018August 24, 2018 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 13 Comments

you beside, never

behind, together we face

forward fearlessly.

CWW Photo Challenge

Senryu

Let me

July 2, 2018 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 22 Comments

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I will sing you comfort when your voice forgets the notes.

I will sing you a clearing to feel the warmth on your back.

I will sing you courage for days when you need to hear the music again.

I will sit in silence listening to your song

when you have forgotten it exists.

Remove one brick.

June 18, 2018 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 20 Comments

Enlight18

Invisible Weight

May 30, 2018May 31, 2018 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 8 Comments

Your bones scream to rest

an anvil on your chest

no dawn comes lightly.

Invite the monster to sit with you

it gains ugliness with denial

put your arm around that which

you don’t want to hold.

“When you come out of the grips of a depression there is an incredible relief, but not one you feel allowed to celebrate. Instead, the feeling of victory is replaced with anxiety that it will happen again, and with shame and vulnerability when you see how your illness affected your family, your work, everything left untouched while you struggled to survive. We come back to life thinner, paler, weaker … but as survivors. Survivors who don’t get pats on the back from coworkers who congratulate them on making it.” – Jenny Lawson’s book Furiously Happy

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