love

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.

Experiments in growing – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 40 Comments 


wanting full sun while full well knowing I am a shade plant

as hours of sunlight in our landscape keep shifting

seeing us wilting 

I am willing to consider transplanting

while irrigating with honesty 

wondering weeds away 

trusting rainclouds and the pollination between us 
© Ali Grimshaw 2025 - Photo taken on a lovely Colorado farm.

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

One Day They Knew – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 17 Comments 

and they signed up to become listeners for the collective
pledging their ears to receive the full telling of each
without rejection of a single tale or truth

a willingness to learn this craft of the heart
essential for survival of the whole

most understood this was more than an occupation
it would become their way of being for a lifetime

to cradle the words of each speaker
holding tender the unthinkable

without judgement 

© Ali Grimshaw 2025
Photo taken in Croatia 2023.

Remember when we used to call each other? – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 12 Comments 



soft
giggles
like crumbs of encouragement

warm
murmurs
like holding a shaking hand

pillows of 
intention
there to catch you

if,
just if.

©Ali Grimshaw 2025

Photo of a happy summer memory and young lovers. 
We are stronger together.

The Noticing – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 23 Comments 

In the grocery store parking lot I stopped.
I stopped when I saw her shining above.

What glory, she captivated the sky 
and the cold felt fresh, an awakening to

the noticing. The beautiful that no one 
can ever take away. The moon, a bright planet

accompanying her, together in the dark
stilled my breath. How lucky that the noticing

still lives within me. So many have forgotten
to look up.

© Ali Grimshaw 2025

In these dark times it is more important than ever to share you light. Sending you mine.

How might you join another? – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 18 Comments

Inosculation, a natural wonder, encapsulates the extraordinary process where parts of two distinct trees, often of the same species but not exclusively, grow together, forming an intimate bond through self-grafting and the sharing of life-sustaining nutrients. This botanical phenomenon, with roots in Latin—ōsculārī, meaning “to kiss”—brings to life a narrative of mutual support, resilience, and interconnectedness in the realm of nature.  from – Nature’s Eternal Embrace: The Extraordinary Bond of Inosculation

by Hasan

togetherness
makes the impossible 
look like magic

lean in to believing
reach with both hands
trust in love

© Ali Grimshaw 2025

Poetry Has Arms – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 7 Comments


Poetry has arms
to reach beyond borders
stretch across isles
swim channels of shame
while handing our fresh hankies
for tears of lost love.

Poetry has arms
to hold, comfort, and allow
for all to be felt
the sharp, the cut wide open
poetry pushes no one away.

All are welcome
through this doorway.

© Ali Grimshaw 2025



I started writing circles with the desire to reach just a few, share my flashlight, and listen with compassion. The last four years have brought your voices on the breeze, across seas stanzas sailed, flew and walked themselves beyond boundaries. I have heard your hearts.
Throughout my facilitating of writing circles I have witnessed authentic sharing and heartfelt listening. I believe the practice of writing and reflecting together is a powerful agent of change. At an event I attended recently Mark Nepo said, “Global humanity’s health depends on healthy souls keeping the literacy of the heart alive.” This resonated with me. Let’s come together and do this in the writing circle.

Are you curious about exploring possibilities through poems? Are you seeking a sisterhood to write and reflect? Are you wanting a loving space to purposefully pause?

Listening for Possibility – Writing Circle Series With Ali

Three Saturdays: January 25, February 8, February 22, 2025
9:30 – 11:00 am PDT on Zoom

During each session we will listen to poems and each other, listen inward for the needs of the heart and explore the doors we want to open next.

This group will be held to six participants to allow deep listening and sharing.

$75 for the series

Payment through PayPal paypal.me/LIfeByDesignOR or Venmo at Alicia-Grimshaw

Whether you are inspired to join me or not I would love to hear from you. I am looking for ways to be of service to others through writing.

Wishing you wellness and peace,

Ali

Daybreak – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 22 Comments 

Each day a chance
for new green to reach us
for listening to happen in a way
that has never happened before.

For air to clear.
And for us to come together 
instead of apart.

For healing to blossom
forgiveness heard, shame shifting
to break the cycle of old chains.

For mirroring your love
revealing how your eyes
have seen me forward.

For rebalancing of Earth and sky
an atmosphere where all living things
breathe without fear of suffocation.

For dormancy to begin again
or throw off its covers
to jump out of bed.

Published in Wounds I Healed: The Poetry of Strong Women
Editor Gabriela Marie Milton 2022.

This poem rings more true to me than ever. Let's keep creating a vision of love for the future. 

Join us at dVerse Poets' Pub for Open Link Night. Share a poem and join in the reading of other's work. You can find us HERE.

Belief in Planting – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 21 Comments

“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” – John Muir

As I dug deeply down to tuck you in safely, one by one, in softness, grounded for growth with care and wishes for your survival. (Awareness of my lack of qualifications and experience crowded into the activity like a boisterous neighbor who wasn’t invited. “This won’t work. You don’t know what you’re doing.”)

As I put my shovel away, I am thinking about internal resistance. My resistance to planting, to bothering with placing all of you in the earth. My head saying, “You’re doing it wrong. You will be disappointed.” My heart replying, “Let’s try. I need to wonder.”

Now I am pondering, curious actually, what would it be like to live without a belief in planting. Realizing I already know. I have been there and don’t want to go back.

I am seeding a future I cannot see. I am planting hope in the dark cold of winter. This includes garlic cloves and my belief in loving action to grow the next. Stepping into the unknowable with a curious heart that knows it doesn’t always work out and planting it anyway.

Later that day I found three more cloves in my pocket. Three that escaped planting day. Their potential is not lost. I will find time to tuck them to bed too.

Cover them with leaves.

© Ali Grimshaw 2024

Thank you Stephanie Matlock for nurturing my inner farmer and gifting me garlic to plant. You are the Garlic Master! Cobblestone Farms, LLC.