The Gift of Goodbye – Poem by Ali Grimshaw


I'll miss you, he said.

3 words that land large within me.
I let them soak inward
pausing, to embrace this moment.

I'll miss you, he said.

Within these words I hear.
      I noticed you while you were here.
      I have felt your presence.
      You mattered,
      a space will be left here after you have gone.

I'll miss you, he said.

How wonderful to be able to hear these words, 
words I didn't know how to hear
before

tears on my smiling face.

© Ali Grimshaw 2023

Photo taken on my journey to France, 2019.

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Purposeful Pause – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

when will the subtle 
silent, shadows of sureity
be noticed in your day

will your eyes always be drawn away
suduced into following flash floresent
the orange-red of fake fire
immediate over postponed desire

will you try on the bluegreen lined in lime
a cool energy alternative 
worthy of afternoon considerations 

oh, I understand more than you know
this would require stopping
and
you don't have time for that

© Ali Grimshaw 2023

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Morning Forecast – Poem by Ali Grimshaw


The wordclouds hover above
to make a shadow on my morning.

Looking up I wonder, how am I to decipher
which are fact or which are fiction?

Layered marks of truth and dare
like a novel netted weather pattern

and I am no meterologist,
just someone looking

for a small clearing in the sky.

© Alicia Grimshaw 2023

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Revisiting Beliefs- Poem by Ali Grimshaw

Your belief in aloneness
is your greatest mistake.

You were born into the hands 
of the world, for us 
to sing you through.

Mountains to call you upward
rivers to bring forth and release.

For what you are made of, I am made of
elements of rock, sky and sea.

Your error is not that you are broken
It is that you have yet to see
your wholeness.

© Alicia Grimshaw 2023

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for Open Link Night on 
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City Dweller – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

“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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Beckoning – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

turning the page
tilts my story's full, first half

daybreak spills, spreading

past pages highlighted 
scribbled, dog-eared 

moldable mornings
of my middle life

a return route mapped
for when memory fades

my shadow lengthens
I am far past sunrise 

now imagination holds 
the pen 

©Ali Grimshaw 2022

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Taking Flight – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

Transitions are in the air... some are leaving the nest for flight. 

As you join the others
a new word grows inside me,

a tight bundled joypain sits within
my chest cracking open to release 

the scent of baby powered damp hair

for the many practiced days have passed
the next migration is a solo flight.

Your sturdy shoulders of readiness 
experimental charm accompanied with grin

will be a gift many will appreciate.

Your graduation to come 
is a forced exhale and I breathe in 

the flight to come.

Shake off the illusion, you were never 
really mine from the start. 

You have always belonged to to the world.

I was always ever the warm nest
from which you would someday fly.

©Ali Grimshaw 2022

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Dedicated to all parents of graduates.  Yes, part of your heart is stepping out into the world to touch the lives of others. Let it go. Part of it will stay with you forever. What a privilege to experience this amazing journey of expanding love. Congratulations.

Sipping – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

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

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Welcome – Poem By Ali Grimshaw

I stumbled upon this tree and she had much to share
"I'm twisted and far from upright but that won't stop me

from blue sky mornings, feeling the sun warm each layer
of my thick skin muffling me from the critics of all things

that don't look quite straight. Let the rain drip down 
your skin. What? You say you haven't stood naked in the rain?

You haven't lived until you've felt singular drops land cool
one, then another to awaken aliveness once lost to you.

Stick with me kid. There's no reason to return to the city.
Let me see your Tree Pose. Beautiful! Welcome to the grove."

©Ali Grimshaw 2022

For day 13 of Na/GloPoWriMo. Everything is going to be amazing.

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Photo taken in the desert outside of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. 
What a magical experience to meet this grandmother tree.

Just in case – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

soft
giggles
like crumbs of encouragement

warm
murmurs
like holding a shaking hand

pillows of
intention
there to catch you

if,
just if.

©Ali Grimshaw 2022

None of us knows what tomorrow will bring.
Yet, I do know that I can choose love and I will.

dVerse – Open Link Night #311