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City Dweller – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 20 Comments

“You are comprised of 84 minerals, 23 Elements, and 8 gallons of water spread across 38 trillion cells. You have been built up from nothing by the spare parts of the Earth you have consumed, according to a set of instructions hidden in a double helix and small enough to be carried by a sperm. You are recycled butterflies, plants, rocks, streams, firewood, wolf fur, and shark teeth, broken down to their smallest parts and rebuilt into our planet’s most complex living thing.

You are not living on Earth. You are Earth.”

— Aubrey Marcus

My heart has felt the isolation of cold times
walls that didn't allow visitors to enter.

if I had grown up in the forest 
sung to by the wind in the trees
watched the birds flit, feed and gather in song

if I had slept by the rushing river
soothed by it magical movement
of freedom to flow over and between 

if I had foraged with the bears
following their lead to thread through
undergrowth to find my fill

would I have ever met loneliness?

Does separation exist for forest dwellers 
moss to mouse
tree to tribe
river to racoon
webbed connections none to separate?

© Ali Grimshaw 2022

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for dVerse Open Link Night #327 - HERE
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Intention – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 27 Comments 

she wished to glue
leaves of color back onto the limbs
unprepared for this season's shift

then frozen morning winds carried 
a new consideration her way

could a breathe of chill be welcomed
like an unexpected guest
a dabbled hope through dark days?

she tries this thought on, not her usual 
fashion, seeks to understand it's fittings

then opens her dormant suitcase  
to laughter spilling out like sunshine
a reminder of past orbits around the sun

she has another day
of changing sky

and many clouds to capture

© Ali Grimshaw 2022

Moonwashed Musings – Dappled

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Living the Questions – By Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 12 Comments 
"If you are faithful to living a question, 
that question will be faithful back to you." 
- Krista Tippett

Living the Questions

Which room do you lie down in most?
The one with a sky blue ceiling of hopefulness
or the backroom with walls of yesterday's old news.

Where do you sit to nourish yourself?
In the peach room of newness 
with windows open to birdsong breezes
or the room of sterile white protection from the outside.

What questions are you feeding yourself
along with your morning tea?

Who will you trust to welcome in
to keep you company 
when you choose to remodel
your next room?

© Alicia Grimshaw 2022

If you only could choose one question
to live into for the next week what would it be?

earthweal - Open Link Weekend - join us HERE.

Back Then – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 25 Comments

This poem is in response to the Pandemic Haibun Challenge that’s currently underway in the publication, A Cornered Gurl via Medium.  Thank you trE for the opportunity for shared reflection.

Noticings are always within reach if your eyes are open. A friend’s phone call, text photo, or cherished smile from six feet away can keep your cup from emptiness. Yet eventually days bleed into one another, months lose their borders, leaving Mondays indistinguishable. Where weeks fall like dominoes. Small routines within repeated walls lead to smaller and smaller thinking. Loneliness swallows you into the basket of its belly. Where over time depression feeds itself with handfuls of separation. It blindfolds your eyes so slowly you that you forget that sight has been lost. You stop moving, reaching out your arms. Until one morning’s shock of sunlight reminds you there is a world beyond this box called myself.

love went missing in

a forced experiment of

awakening us

© Alicia Grimshaw 2022

Without reflection there is no opportunity to learn. 
What have you learned from the pandemic experience?

Circling Back – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 8 Comments 
"I know things. I've seen things.
I don't know what you're going through, though. 
I've held troubles, but they weren't shaped like yours. 
I've lost, but none of my missing pieces would have filled your gaps.
I know some things, not all things."

from a poem called, the knowing by Ra Avis

Circling back

coming round 
sliding through 
this Autumn arc

I greet myself
a younger version 
of complex cells

she is just a beginning 
a growing lightness
wrapped in doubt

© Ali Grimshaw 2022

Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge – Alone
Come join us for a creative boost. HERE

Photo of God's Thumb Hike, Oregon Coast
Click HERE for information

Chasing Waterfalls – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 22 Comments 
choices round
choices flat
choices show us
where we're at

choices lead us to the door
choices call us
scream for more

choices encircle or fence some out
choices whisper
sometimes shout

It is up to you 
what you find
to open up 
or close your mind.

©Ali Grimshaw 2022

Inspired by dVerse Poet's Pub
Prompt: Choices
you can join in HERE.

I am not sure what happened today. I never write rhyming poems.
This one wouldn't let me go.

Begin – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 19 Comments 
pull the small metallic triangle
tear through troubles
until tingle arrives
until you are fully unwrapped
leaving anxious ribbons
tinseled tension
trailed behind

bare-skinned, beaming, braver 
than the last version
greet your new shadow-self
welcome possibilities

many stones of adventure
lay at your feet

©Ali Grimshaw 2022

 dVerse Poet's Pub - Quadrille #156
- HERE

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Write Yourself: Poetry Writing Circle
August 14, 2022 CLICK HERE

Sipping – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 31 Comments 
she didn't need to know how to pronounce the name
of what grew before her delicately vivid

she didn't need to understand how it pollinated
or the temperatures it withstood last winter

she didn't need to know why it arrived 
who brought it from afar or how it survived

her eyes saw the magenta magnificence
drank in the sweet joy of bloom in a cup

tasted the miniture petals
an elixer of revival

©Ali Grimshaw 2022

Join a friendly community of poets for Open Link Night
at dVerse Poet's Pub HERE

Lessons from a Dogwood – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 45 Comments 
"Nature does not hurry
yet everything is accomplished."
-Lao Tzu

a flower
can be a poem 
all by itself

color replacing gray
newsroom days

each petal, lined hues
of good news

the glory of opening
ourselves 
to live again

©Ali Grimshaw 2022

Covid finnally caught me and I am learning 
how to accept it as an uninvited guest. 
Sending you wishes for wellness.

Join me at earthweal 
this week: Lessons from the Wild

Photo taken on one of my neighborhood walks.

500th – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 29 Comments 
"The decision we face is not to chart the perfect way forward; it is simply to embark on a journey. Once we’ve taken a step forward, the work will teach us where to take a second step, and then a third, and so on. Purpose does not reveal itself to those sitting safely at the starting block. In other words, you don’t plan your way into finding your purpose. You live into it.”
- Jacqueline Novogratz

500th

I guess I can't call it an accident
it's time to admit, intentionality.
Claiming my inner poet five years ago
(a birthday gift to myself) has led to this
my 500th post. I would have given up 
sharing, long ago, if it hadn't been for you 
you reading, then reflecting back 
your thoughts in return.

Knowing the aloneness of darkness
I started with the desire  
to reach just one
share my flashlight 
sit beside and just listen 
and listen some more.

These years have brought your voices
on the breeze, across seas, 
stanzas have sailed, flown
and walked themselves
beyond boundaries,
I have heard your hearts.

Together we are rewriting 
a world through poetry.

Thank you for being a part of my journey.
I am here to serve you in yours.

I would love to write with you and hold space for your words. 

Renewal Through Poetry: Introductory Writing Circles
March 7, 4:00 PM PST register here – Eventbrite