Poetry is truth in a universal language able to cross boundaries and reach the human heart. It is through our practice of listening deeply to poems, to ourselves and each other that the joy of connection is created within the writing circle. I am honored to hold space for your words and invite you to welcome them to the page. Let's get lost together as we write and reflect. Join me for an upcoming writing circle. Fill your heart. Let's get lost in beauty of the waves. Put the needle on the record of this day, live simply so others may simply live to delight in all good things wild and free. © Ali Grimshaw 2021
renewal
Alongside the Tent – poem by Ali Grimshaw

My bare feet travel riverside down the dust talcum path. They feel the way forward while softly grounded in the fine dirt. As the bank of trees lean to shade, the river glides past, over and around rocks. Here it seems effortless for lives of birds, fish and plants to thrive together. None needing to shame or blame. Is it just my interpretation or have the living of the river ecosystem always known that there is enough for all, that everyone’s time will someday pass, that we will someday be nourishment for the next in line and there is peace in the acceptance of being a part of the changing cycle? There seems to be balance here. The kind of balance I am always seeking. As I hike up the pants, I have yet to grow into, I wonder if humans really are the more evolved species. It seems that I have so much to learn from the Osprey’s willingness to try again and the way rivers shift course without blaming the logs that have fallen to block their route. As I pack up my tent site I am already planning my return.
The river knows flow transforming place without shame forgiving teacher © Ali Grimshaw 2020 Haibun Monday, 8/31/20:Take a Hike! Join in the sharing at dVerse Poet's Pub.
Receiving – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

The messages kept landing paper birds like folded airplanes from the sky. Confetti of voices wanting to be heard swirling of anger, colors of hurt, colliding confusion spiraling to crash on the ground. We hold our hands out to catch them scattering in the street to pick up the fallen. Each message, a precious life with wings a paper bird in need of repair. We sit in a circle and begin to unfold cupping our hands, just one at a time listening to its life of song. It is like we have always known what was needed. We knew we would stay as long as it took to give the listening for each bird to be heard. It was clear. It was not a burden. As we gently passed them from one hand to another, one by one around the circle, the sky opened to us all. © Ali Grimshaw 2020 dVerse ~ Poets Pub, Open Link Night with Linda Share your voice and read the poems of others.
This poem is a reflection on the writing circles I have hosted. I will continue to offer a safe space of refuge for others to be seen and heard just as they are. Love is always the way forward.
Fall Will Catch You – a poem by Ali Grimshaw
Painted leaves sing in unison
Unlike music, their song
is soundless harmony.
This orchestra of color
soothes the tempo
an internal pounding
from a day of instruments
that refused to play
the same song.
Fall catches me
with muted volume
a serenade of equilibrium.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2018
Unravel an opening
It is a continual process to unweave
that which is truth from story. I pull
a thread, remove one line, observe how
the fabric changes, notice the new spaces
breathing between essential threads
that remain, a skeleton of existence
until extracting the unneeded
leaves what is left, sparsely resilient
penetrable light of a future once blocked
by memories tightly woven.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2018
Running Partner
Rain on our lips
down the path we run.
Through puddles
not around.
Mud and moss
wind whipped hair
years of words
between breaths of air.
Over roots, between trees
creek waters roll by, unraveling
questions quenched by the miles.
Thoughts uttered within the flow
of movement, vulnerability
not possible in stillness.
Ali Grimshaw – revision of a poem first shared in 2016
Tough Exterior
rusted rails, a cage to keep others out
no second chances, a cost too great
alone in the elements, hardened by hurt
not the last turn
just a mistaken dead end sign
wonder yourself free, between the bars
look up, before you lies a light of awe
to melt your heart free.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2018
Slightly to the right
One step to the right
not a stretch, just a nudge
shift of weight to the side.
One step away
between worry and wonder
landscape of exhaustion
or possibility.
Not a marathon, nothing to train for,
just one
small
step.
Get your shoes on.
wonder is waiting.
© Ali Grimshaw 2018
Photo credit to Pixabay.com
Unwind
Thinking in reverse
months tip, like dominos
to revisit that summer day.
Longing for this cleansing pool,
offering of chilled calmness
encircled by stone, here I joined
the river of slow movement,
pulling at my rapid pulse.
Plucking the notes ever slower.
Heartbeat dissolving
until I was
just being
water.
© Ali Grimshaw
Almost Tangible
He made the plain and simple
a view of miraculous. With just
a touch. All became encased overnight
by a spell of magic.
A landscape of tiny glass castles.
Her damp feet, nourished soul
left her with a wondering, as if
it almost never happened.
Had winter sun
melted her glass slippers away?
© Ali Grimshaw 2017