Say your words,
don’t let your voice whither inside.
Weariness can talk you into thinking that your voice doesn’t matter.
The past may try to convince you that your voice doesn’t count.
Resignation will yell,
“No one will listen any way, so save your breath.”
Say your words
clearly and just loud enough.
Say them for yourself and for the one
that isn’t willing to be the first to speak,
but can and will be the second.
© Ali Grimshaw
sometimes a regret comes back to life
emerging as a poem.
morphing as it translates into words
pain blossoming
on a single stem
each petal overlapping
some parts me
some parts you
forming an image fixed in time
an elixir of us
I drink in
to set us both free.
© Ali Grimshaw
Discovery Challenge – Shared Journeys
The running shoes you left behind
positioned like you evaporated from them
angled as if deserted mid-step
have me wondering
were you ready
to move on to an unknown life
stuffing skills and memories in a backpack
experiences overflowing from unzipped pockets
your back receding into the distance
I have learned the answer to
Are you ever ready?
© Ali Grimshaw
You may believe that I am with you
facing the sea side by side.
Yet I am hidden away
oceans from this place,
traveling without a suitcase.
My vessel left behind.
I don’t need a ship to carry me
to the places I am visiting.
© Ali Grimshaw
I will sing you comfort when your voice forgets the notes.
I will sing you a clearing in the forest,
a place to feel the warm sun on your back.
I will sing you courage for days when you
need to hear the music again.
© Ali Grimshaw
As he walks away,
the unknown grows inside me,
a tightness inside my chest.
His graduation is a forced exhale and I
breathe in the flight to come.
It was an illusion that he was ever mine,
from the start. He never belonged to me.
I was always ever the warm nest
from which he would someday fly.
Alicia Grimshaw
Dedicated to all of the parents of graduates. Yes, part of your heart is stepping out into the world to touch the lives of others. Let it go. Part of it will stay with you forever. What a privilege to experience this amazing journey of expanding love. Congratulations.
The path we share sometimes forks.
Here a place to pause among trees.
Conversations in layers like leaves on the forest floor.
Shadows arrive, shake us with views of separate routes.
I kiss your hand with love as I release it.
Fly above the forest if you are called to.
I will not let you deny yourself
to keep us on the same path.
Together we can travel
only if
you will still seek.
© Alicia Grimshaw revised version 2017
Why is it that the words on your lips
do not match your face?
A perplexing incongruence
leaving me wondering which to trust
the sweet promise of your mouth or
the words my soul knows to be the truth.
© Ali Grimshaw
In between us lies an agreement
a foundational love that maps our conversations
guiding us through fear back to true north
when we have lost our way
in the world of our own emotions.
© Ali Grimshaw
shadows on the deck grow longer
leading the way to closure
the words in my mouth hide
they don’t know how to cooperate
with all that my heart
wishes to say.
© Ali Grimshaw
flashlight batteries - Ali Grimshaw 