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Welcome – Poem By Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 30 Comments 
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

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 39 Comments 
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

Transitory – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 19 Comments 
I built a bridge to you
using marshmallows and glue
It was worth the sticky effort
then it melted in the rain.

I threw a magic ruby rope
woven with sparkles of hope
singing enchantments 
to call you closer.

I dug a river of blue
inviting a float on my skin
to pull you within
but you preferred to fly.

I nested a home for myself
cocooned through my pain.
With a change in the winds
on a zephyr you rode in.

© Ali Grimshaw 2022

dVerse Open LInk Night #307 - Join in HERE

Photo take at the fantastic Chihuly Garden last summer when I was still traveling.

Improvement- Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 35 Comments 
Do birds tweet tips to build the ultimate nest
the perfect moss, twigs and feathers, 
compare upgrades while glancing at neighboring trees?
Are their morning songs full of howtos
improvements for the hatching experience 
which worms provide ultimate first year growth? 
Do they evaluate whose chick flies first
beak prodding, edging young to the side of the nest?

Do whales train for the record breaking swim 
gossip about sleek oils to reduce resistance, 
or share tips for secret feeding grounds?
Do they nose their young to be better, faster, more
than the last generation in hope of survival?
Do they feel the temperature change 
of homeland waters and wonder?

What does it mean to live up to your full potential?
Who decides what that looks like while growing inside
a cage of culture we have been born into? More is 
better or not, faster? Further? More fragile?
What says the wisdom of each being? 

When have I last heard my beating heart?

© Ali Grimshaw 2021 

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Briefly – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 30 Comments
Fallen Leaf Art by Nikola Faller in Osijek, Croatia – More inspiring photos HERE
Briefly

Stages and ages of crimson edges
crisp rounds, centers of golden.

Veins will remain long after the delicate 
sections have disassembled themselves
to join the soil for another cycle. 

These elders don't fight seasonal changes.
Through the quiet and loud
or bend and wave of storm
they receive while sheltering seedings below

forever willing to show their nakeness 
in the darkest of times.
With empty arms
while full of life within.

Their offerings a mosaic
of temorary color.

© Ali Grimshaw 2021

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Sustaining – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 51 Comments 
As the virus
careens
spinning down
our long road.

The dust has yet
to settle
from the wheels.

Slow motion 
particles fall
as we sift silently
through glittered 
remembering.

Was that last month
or yesterday?

As I am here
reaching
you are there
still
only through airwaves

and yet I hear
your love.

© Ali Grimshaw 2021

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Open Link Night HERE

Her Dance – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 23 Comments
Photo by Jeff Rayner, Side-Walking on Air
"Remember your dance?
The young girl inside me
calls out, 
"Remember?"

Dad told me how, as a baby,
I sat on the floor rocking side to side,
just smiling.

Later I was known to start the day 
with only one shoe
my frustrated mother shaking her head
while the school bus left me behind again.

I was a girl who thrived
climbing trees, running through woods
I wasn't hyperactive, just a mover.
Running brought temporary relief.

The only dancing I knew growing up  
drill teams of painted girls, 
performance dancers
that wasn't me.

Finding social dancing in my 20's 
was like a drug. 
Swinging partners in dancehalls
escaping thoughts I didn't know how to turn off. 
Anxiety, the never ending loop of ideas. 
I found myself in the music. 
I floated free. 

It is never too late 
to turn the music on
find your sway, sashay 
surrender to internal movement 

Your body has not forgotten.
Your brain has many incredible ideas 
but your heart is the one who knows
how to dance with the world.

Listen inward
find the place 
where your freedom
resides.

© Ali Grimshaw 2021

“When Gillian was 8 years old, her hyperactivity — which earned her the nickname Wriggle-Bottom — led her mother to take her to a family doctor. While he examined Gillian, the doctor put on some music and asked Mrs. Pyrke to leave the room with him. “Out they went and the minute they had gone I started to dance to the music, even going up on his desk,” Ms. Lynne wrote in her autobiography, “A Dancer in Wartime” (2012). “What I hadn’t noticed was that his door was one of those beautiful old glass ones with etched designs through which the doctor and my mother were watching.” As they observed Gillian dancing with abandon, she recalled, the doctor said: “There is no trouble with this child, Mrs. Pyrke. She is a natural dancer — you must take her to dance class.” – Gillian Lynne, Choreographer of ‘Cats,’ Is Dead at 92 from The New York Times

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And so it goes – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 36 Comments 
at either end of night
there is an opening to light
between, "Good Morning"
and the next curtaining of eyes

there is an opening 
between what remains on the list
the permanently written yet unresolved
and the one who holds the pen

there is an opening 
without a defined doorway
that resides within all light
a heartspace without walls

it lies in the pause before the next 
twilight of the in between
rubythroat mellowing to nectarine

©Ali Grimshaw 2021

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Lacework – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 43 Comments 
Your error is forgetting
that you also began
as a seed.

The starfish that loses an arm
still thrives brightly seaward.

The coyote howls, then listens through
darkness to return to his pack.

The angel oak's reach is far and long
regardless of scarred branches.

Can you see the lacework 
between the living?

Each reaching out
tied in small knots
is also a receiving.

© Ali Grimshaw 2021

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Topography – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 50 Comments 
Thinly sliced sections of her heart

carefully laid bare

an inner dissection

to find the magnificence of awe

that is her heartwisdom.


Following faded peak moments 

mindfully mapped on her skin. 

Elevations reached, views of reckoning

and contours fallen from while yearning

led to an evolution of her topography.


She continues to traverse past valleys

while climbing toward her next becoming 

still a proposed expedition.


© Alicia Grimshaw Rewrite from 2019

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Self-Compassion Through Poetry: Writing Circle,

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