what you had always assumed
to be solid, now soggy sadness
water warped windows with
a view misguided, bended
memories altered the truth
will you forgive yourself
for all that was unseen before?
© Alicia Grimshaw 2018
perspective
Seasonal Departure
At the station, the train of life only pauses
our illusion of control blankets nature’s causes.
Nights to days shift, and the engineer steers
rhythm of the planet moves through the years.
Cycle of no endings, wheels freely spin
untouchable by human error, solstice arrives again.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2018
Couplets for the Solstice – dVerse poetry challenge
Boundaries
Resilience
To open, fold back each layer
expose your inner colors
is nothing small.
I see courage in your willingness
to fully bloom. Expose the tender.
A relentless showing under a threatening sky.
After the loss of petals, burnt leaves.
You still choose the sun over fear
knowing the rains never stop
and summer doesn’t last.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2018
Those that came before
We are held
by unseen hands
family that came before
to hack through the wild
make a trail.
We are held
by their stories, mistakes
and courage. Rightness,
who is to blame
the tinted glasses we wear.
We are held
within their intentions
by the invisible imagination
of their hearts.
© Ali Grimshaw 2018
Inspired by this quote from Moorezart “We all carry, inside us, people who came before us.” ― David Mitchell, The Cloud Atlas
Photo from Pixabay
“If you expect me to answer my own question, I confess that I do not know.”
They call me an adult. Yes, I have learned to make spaghetti sauce, to drive a car. I have mastered some dance steps and can write a concise email response (using spell check to avoid the embarrassments of the past.)
But what have I really learned in my days of clouds passing, night thundershake and the revisiting of another spring? Days of scarlet fever, owning mistakes and reimagining?
With another ring around my trunk, adding layers of curious, I know that I know less with passing time. Like paint peeling off an old house I am more than one color. I live as a revolving door to exit and enter, each time with a different view.
Growing up I thought adults had all the answers, lived in comfortable sureness. Shocked disappointment crashed down when the truth broke through with no answers in its hands.
Why didn’t mom tell me adulthood didn’t come with all the answers.
“She had only one explanation for this fact: things have to be transmitted this way because they were made up from the pure life, and this kind of life cannot be captured in pictures or words.”
1. Illusions by Richard Bach
2. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Written for the dVerse challenge, Bridging the Gap: Select two quotes from two different books. You decide whether you want them recklessly random or slightly/significantly more intentional. Then, construct a poem using one quote as the opening line and the other as the closing line. The blood, sweat, and tears will come while filling in the space between. You may modify the quotes to fit your poem’s rhythm or rhyme scheme, but just be sure to provide the original quotes, authors, and works in a postscript.
Tug of War
According to her internal judge
she was never up to par,
even when crossing the finish line first
accomplishment slid off her skin. Always
gripping, holding on for acceptance.
Yet perplexed separation pained her days.
She wanted belonging
and never wanted to fit in
knew it would change her.
A part broken off to float away irretrievable.
No one else stayed after class to console the bullied teacher.
It never occurred to her not to.
She saw those faces on the fringe,
secretly knowing she was an outlier as well.
She let go of the kinship rope
not to lose herself.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
Morning Newsbreak
The 5:00 am thud,
my front porch newspaper.
When will this sound disappear
from my listening landscape?
Like the comfort
of sounds, predictable life
before the robots were made.
When hands held headlines
faithful objects, a lifeline
of interpretation on paper thinness
read in gentle openness
played at morning speed of drowsy slow
accompanied by the aroma of coffee.
The illusion of a day with
news within my control.
© Ali Grimshaw 2018
“It is difficult to get the news from poems yet men [and women] die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.”—William Carlos Williams
13 Ways to Support Poetry – guest blog post by Dick Allen – A great article with specific ways to keep poetry alive in the world.
dVerse OpenLinkNight #218 – If you are looking for a community of poets you can find one here.
National Poetry Month – Fall in love with a poet.
Love Louder
Can two words be enough,
make a poem on their own
to shake the passers by awake.
Just a couple, woven into
the fabric of an ordinary day?
Please tell me they can.
© Ali Grimshaw 2018
Photo of a local high school fence, Oregon
My light is shining
Thank you Ghost City Review for publishing my poem, The Passing Judgement Of Those Walking By, this month. Ghost City Press is based in Syracuse, NY. Their goal is to provide a platform for the exhibition of work by new and emerging writers and artists in the online literary community. They publish writers who understand the complexities of the world we live in and who reflect this in their work.
We all have poetry inside us. How different the world would be if this were believed.
Make yours a day of wondrous words.
Ali
flashlight batteries - Ali Grimshaw 