Music from the field

If the grasses could sing,

a pure note from each blade

their chorus accompanied by

angled beams of light

on each swaying tip

beyond this

yet unheard melody

is my love for you.

© Ali Grimshaw 2017

#Loveuary Challenge

Conversation on the beach

The breeze picked up

your words were carried away

by the gusts. My heart on the beach alone

as we continued to walk, I remained

jealous of the wind

holding your words so close.

© Ali Grimshaw 2017

 

Putting the pieces back

 

I will walk beside you. Fill your cracks

with care. Speak your strengths, over

and over until they are glue. Help you

see all truly beautiful things were once

broken. I will love you with abandon

pour a hot cup of tea. Search for your

missing shards. Pluck out sharp words

used for self-inflicted pain. Chant, cheer,

and call your name. I will run ahead

to look for danger and get behind to push.

But please know you have the final piece

to set in place. I can’t make you whole again.

© Ali Grimshaw 2017

Photo thanks to PIXABAY

#Loveuary Challenge 

 

Please don’t give up on love.

enlight1

Go and find love today

for it surrounds us like

good soup from a friend,

sunlight through trees,

the laughter of children.

Give love today and you will

feel its touch.

Happy Valentine’s Day to my friends around the world!

The Open Space

love is an open space

not yet filled place

a hand reaching out

ready

without expectation

 

large, tiny, tattooed, wrinkled

skin darker or lighter

held out to you

love is there

if you return the

reach.

© Ali Grimshaw 2017

#Loveuary and Love Day Blog Party at But I Smile Anyway…

The future of heartbreak

“How do you keep your heart whole?” he asked. “I can’t bear the breaking.”

“You don’t,” she whispered. “Let it crack open,

like a ruby pomegranate full of moments you have been alive.
Tear away the soft sides, let the jeweled pieces scatter.

They will be found.  Picked up by the parched,
carried forward into days where hearts
will be strong enough to break, expand.”

“I am not that strong.” he said, shaking his head.

Tearing off a part of her own heart.

“Take some of my mine, you will be.”

© Ali Grimshaw 2017

#Loveuary – share the love this month with But I Smile Anyway…

Heart wide open

Today I wrote a gift for you

my pen pulled my hand along, (it is braver than I)

it knows how to lay my heart wide open,

like a prairie to the sky

nowhere to hide, expansive and still

miles from adequate for what I wish to give.

© Ali Grimshaw 2017

February is the month of love. I will be celebrating with love poems all month long.

#Loveuary – inspired by Ritu at But I Smile Anyway…

Photo credit to Nicolas T.

 

Drawing a house

What do you hold onto

when the bottom drops out

leaving you foundationless?

Your roof carried away by a tornado.

Left only with blankness and a pen

you forgot was in your hand.

 

I draw myself a new house

windows of openness, a tin roof to hear rain

a welcome door without requirements

with the hope that you feel safe enough to visit.

Uncensored, just as you are not

when you leave the premises.

© Ali Grimshaw 2017

 

 

 

 

 

You took the colors with you.

When the last leaf has fallen,

and I am left on my own,

my sorrow will have no company.

You took the colors with you.

 

You took the colors with you,

my questions left alone in the air.

Bleached silence, no reply.

 

I gave away too much again, 

White walls with no solutions,

an empty palette in my hands. 

© Ali Grimshaw

After I posted the above poem printed in red. The Original Phoenix asked me this question, “How do you find the new colors?”  What a wonderful question to consider. Today I dedicate this expanded poem to her for inspiring me to dig deeper and bring the rest to life. Although I still didn’t answer her question, I continue to ponder it. Thank you! Check out her blog, CONFESSIONS OF A REBORN GIRL.  Never underestimate the power of offering feedback.  We all need each other.