One day I finally knew that I could swim
in the blue of the sky.
That I was as strong as I declared myself to be.
That my fears were teachers made just for me.
That there would always be cracks to slip through
times of trembling, shaken awake to fall again.
Then I stood next to the lake,
a mirror of blue sky wholeness,
arms wide with acceptance
I, the problem and solution
dove into a
reflection of release.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
Take in Varenna, Italy 2016
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.
She turns to face them,
leans in to hear their voices
more surprised than terrified.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
Photo taken in Amsterdam 2014
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
“In spite of the flames of tragedy, a poem is a glowing ember, making visible the power of hope, and the human spirit. We must not only read and watch, we are called by the poet to bring the flame back to the ember, to do what we can to help people not only to survive, but to thrive.” – Why Poetry Matters from Huffington Post
Under the tree, sitting
knee to knee while
randomly, snow petals
drift down between us.
‘How can we begin again?
After all, I don’t trust.
I have forgotten how, or…
maybe I never knew.’
While branches above blossom yearly
growth regardless of weather.
‘I guess the question is,
how badly do I
want to blossom?’
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
“Poetry is the journal of the sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air. Poetry is a search for syllables to shoot at the barriers of the unknown and the unknowable. Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away.” — Carl Sandburg, from The Atlantic, March 1923.
flashlight batteries - Ali Grimshaw 