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
Let me
I will sing you comfort when your voice forgets the notes.
I will sing you a clearing to feel the warmth on your back.
I will sing you courage for days when you need to hear the music again.
I will sit in silence listening to your song
when you have forgotten it exists.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2018
Her Why
It went around her neck, a symbol smooth of warmth
concise clarity, just enough weight to feel the ground
hold onto when her confidence didn’t show up for work.
It replaced her doubts packaged with strings of anxiety
long ago shipped on away. Her essential purpose
written to last, needed all of the available room.
The chain lay lightly on her chest, polished by her daily reaching.
She was never without it, the promise made for small faces
their eyes questions from a future she would never see.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2018
“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” – Nietzsche
Backyard Haiku
Celebrate Summer.
Don’t wait.
Be present to it’s taste.
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
Remove one brick.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
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
Invisible Weight
Your bones scream to rest
an anvil on your chest
no dawn comes lightly.
Invite the monster to sit with you
it gains ugliness with denial
put your arm around that which
you don’t want to hold.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2018
“When you come out of the grips of a depression there is an incredible relief, but not one you feel allowed to celebrate. Instead, the feeling of victory is replaced with anxiety that it will happen again, and with shame and vulnerability when you see how your illness affected your family, your work, everything left untouched while you struggled to survive. We come back to life thinner, paler, weaker … but as survivors. Survivors who don’t get pats on the back from coworkers who congratulate them on making it.” – Jenny Lawson’s book Furiously Happy
Sunday afternoon meditation in the backyard
Ok, breathe
ease back in the chair.
Breathe. Ahh. Blue sky in my backyard.
Oh no. Not leaf blower man.
I thought he moved.
Breathe. Let it all go. You are free.
See? It stopped. Listen to the birds.
Close your eyes.
Breathe.
What? Not again? This is noise pollution!
Slow. Feel your body in this space.
Who invented this *&%$# thing?
What ever happened to my silent friend, The Rake?
Breathe. Let it go.
This too shall pass.
Remember the teacher said find calm within chaos,
Breathe. I bet he didn’t have leaf blower man
nextdoor.
Inhale.
Exhale.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2018
For the Thursday d’Verse challenge. My first contrapuntal poem. Contrapuntal are poems that intertwine two (or more) separate poems into a single composition.
flashlight batteries - Ali Grimshaw 