Putting the pieces back

February 17, 2017 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 33 Comments

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.

Photo thanks to PIXABAY

#Loveuary Challenge

The Open Space

February 13, 2017 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 10 Comments

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.

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

Love is never closed for business.

February 5, 2017 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 10 Comments

enlight1

With love there is always room at the table.

Bring what you have to share

even if it is just a memory, a song.

Together we will make a meal to feed

not just our stomachs

our souls shall be satisfied

nourished through connection.

Your stories on my tongue

sweet and savory.

Celebrate #Loveuary with But I Smile Anyway…

The future of heartbreak

February 3, 2017 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 8 Comments

“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.”

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

When change comes …

January 30, 2017January 30, 2017 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 11 Comments

Waking to a foreign experience

like a transplanted language

that spread through the city while I slept.

I used to trust myself to know the way

right turn, then straight, always on course.

Within my country, I thought I knew where I was.

Now my GPS offers no help. No translation available.

Consistent landscape. Buildings in place

yet unrecognizable to my inner navigation.

My compass now cracked, unable to orient

true North now lies

inside me.

Discovery Challenge – Conventional Wisdom

Thanks for keeping the door unlocked.

Image ~ January 26, 2017 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 20 Comments

Will you be a rainbow?

January 18, 2017 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 20 Comments

Not qualified, no certificate, diploma

just a person, regular, no one special.

Who me? I don’t know how. Where would I start?

Listen. Open your heart. Look. Open your eyes.

An opportunity right in front of you. Yes, right there.

It won’t matter. I don’t count. It’s too late.

No one ever tires of a rainbow coming through the clouds.

Your colors impossible to see from an internal view

vivid in the eyes of those waiting.

Dr. Maya Angelou – Thank you for reminding me that I can be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud and to take all the rainbows of my life with me wherever I go.

Rainbow photo thanks to pixabay.com/en/rainbow-kelvenne-national-park-1372108/

Drawing a house

January 13, 2017January 13, 2017 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 15 Comments

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.

Will you reconsider?

Image ~ January 3, 2017January 3, 2017 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 9 Comments

365 pages

January 2, 2017 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 16 Comments

Out of an infinite number of stories ending this year

how lucky am I to continue mine.

To understand, as I didn’t before

how to see the next blank page

author what is left.

To smear the words by numbing

or battle to awaken the next chapter,

an internal fight rekindled by rewrites.

Still awed by the power of dusk to soften the view

I choose to attend this party called life.

Many minutes are not guaranteed.

I savor this very one.

Each year I celebrate the gift of getting to live another year by writing a birthday poem. This is my poem for 2016. I don’t have the words to clearly express the layers of learning, global connection and inspiration I found by jumping into the world of blogging this year. Thank you to WordPress for making it possible and to the many, many kind bloggers who offered support. I am honored to have a poem chosen by the Drabble as one of the top ten editor’s picks for the year. Ten of our favorite Drabbles of 2016. I hope this inspires you to share your voice in 2017.

Discover Challenge – Retrospective