© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
Regenerate: Hiker’s Haiku
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
blog
Snapshot
You look but don’t see
me. Within your view
invisible to your eyes.
Discomfort or unconscious
choice. I cannot be a character
in the story of your world.
Revisit the snapshot
years later, silhouetted,
my image lives.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
Photo taken in Lucca, Italy 2016.
Lessons
How do you capture
a lifetime of fatherhood
put it down on the page?
Your voice in times of doubt
your hand on my shoulder
your cup always half full.
Yet, it wasn’t what you said
year after year that I remember most
you stood beside
you held up others
you lead with love.
You showed me.
Dedicated to my dearly loved father, Thomas Jenkins, who has fathered many over the years as an educator and coach. No words will ever be enough to tell you how much I love you.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
Haiku from my backyard
The first bowl of summer strawberries picked from my backyard.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
Dialogue
Random thoughts collect in her hair.
Ideas shed by passers by
printed in fonts, large and small
nestled in her curls.
Within the crowd ideas conflict
like a crash of cymbals.
She swallows them all
continues to shift the molecules
search for a new formula
that makes sense.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
Doubt
Why?
One word with the power to
kick my brain from the inside.
Why did I pick this?
Why is it important to me?
Without this one word question
procrastination can run amok.
Why does finishing this matter?
Will anyone care?
Is it worth it?
I am just one
among billions.
Just plain old me.
What if I don’t?
What will be lost?
Will I cease to exist?
The why of
is always
the essential.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
Inspired by Nikki’s post titled “Doubts and Dreams” – Flying Through Water
Background Story
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
Courage rides the train
They stepped onto the train that day
unaware of the choice the ride included.
When the voice of hate screamed
the two stood as stone, unwilling to look away.
Unified strangers woven into a safety net
flung over the young ones
a protective cover given without request
those two hearts knew what freedom
to live without fear was worth.
The cost of standing up,as the train moved into tomorrow
was life itself.
In this morning’s memory mirror
I wonder if I would be brave enough
to ride as they did.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
Dedicated to the men who died a year ago in Portland, Oregon as they stood to defend two young women. My heart breaks for the loved ones of Ricky Best, father of four and US Army veteran, and Taliesan Namkai-Meche a recent college graduate. In honor of these two and the countless others who have stood up against hate please join me in acts of kindness wherever you live. Love is the only answer.
For more information read this Washington Post article, ‘Final act of bravery’: Men who were fatally stabbed trying to stop anti-Muslim rants identified
In reflection… Memorial Day
When you signed
put life on the line
with handwritten ink bleeding on the page,
did you realize the sacrifice
a mother’s wail to follow in the night
before your feet left this land?
My heart cracks with the thinking of it
pain leaking out slow.
The life you donated for others
unknown to you
makes me know without doubt
love is brave.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
Thank you to all who have given their lives for others.
Closed Shutters
Light filtered through shutters, yet she chose darkness.
For months she pushed it away, terrified
of being consumed, eaten whole.
Adamant in her refusal to sit with it.
Now she contemplates the dark.
Always kept at arm’s length
.
This unfamiliar,
meeting it for the first time.
It is not as cold to touch as expected.
Unwilling to go it alone, she invites
Curiosity to accompany her
and this new nameless acquaintance
to hide under the blanket together.
She turns to face them,
leans in to hear their voices
more surprised than terrified.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
Photo taken in Amsterdam 2014
flashlight batteries - Ali Grimshaw 