a gathering of cells multiplying magnificent a seed inside breathing being and no one even knew that you had begun arriving, small magic happening inside the womb she went about her day hanging laundry in her quiet way while the message of you grew © Ali Grimshaw 2021 An early Mother's Day poem. Quadrille Monday on dVerse
d’Verse Quadrille
Quarantine Quadrille – poem by Ali Grimshaw
As the virus careens, spinning down our long road. The dust has yet to settle from the wheels Slow motion, particles falling, We sift sillily through, glittered remembering. Was that last week? As I am here, reaching you are there, still only through airwaves. © Alicia Grimshaw 2020
Entryway
And though it may seem
like never opening your eyes
will protect you.
Grief’s gentle hand
closing your eyes
to sleep the days away.
If you don’t awaken
there is no way for the love
to get in.
Put your OPEN sign back up.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2020
dVerse Quadrille #101
“The risk of love is loss, and the price of loss is grief — But the pain of grief is only a shadow when compared with the pain of never risking love.”
– Hilary Stanton Zunin
Caremongering – poem by Ali Grimshaw
house to house
neighbor to neighbor
kindness dissemination
this unstoppable virus of care
magical movement spread rampant
the isolated
blanketed with warmth
by open offers, action compassion
waves of encouragement through the window
one errand for survival at a time
an escalation of tenderness
© Ali Grimshaw 2020
dVerse Poets Pub – Quadrille “Magic”
Coronavirus: Kind Canadians start ‘caremongering’ trend
Life in a suitcase
Their voices
Peeling memories away
layers of lives left littered
one packed suitcase
one hope
one chance
Back across the sea
buildings without occupancy
echoes through rooms
call them back home
Here they are
far from the familiar
family table and
some are missing
© Ali Grimshaw 2020
This poem was inspired by this article. Interview: Artists Rebuild Refugees’ Emotional Memories of “Home” Inside Suitcases By Jessica Stewart
“Working together with writer Ahmed Badr, architect and sculpture artist Mohamad Hafez listened to the stories of refugee families living in America and helped shine a light on their experiences. As two former refugees themselves—Hafez from Syria and Badr from Iraq—this is an issue close to their hearts. The result is Unpacked, an emotional multi-media installation where the voices of each family tell their experiences as viewers engage with an incredible scale model of the homes they’ve left behind.”
“Each model, created by Hafez, is packed into a suitcase as a symbol of the baggage these families carry forward into their new lives. As Hafez listened carefully during the interviews, which often ran six to seven hours, he was sketching what he heard. Using what he discovered, he was able to mold their memories into a visual representation that leaves no question about the dire circumstances these refugees faced.”
Unpacked will be on view at the University of Madison-Wisconsin – February 5, 2020 to March 15, 2020.
Roaring – Poem by Ali Grimshaw
earth cracking realization
shake and bake reformation
voice regained
shift and tumbled truths
revealed by backward binoculars
their sight once trusted for even footing
do not be surprised by my song
or the way I harness cumulonimbus clouds
I am no longer
that girl.
© Ali Grimshaw 2019
Liberation – poem by Ali Grimshaw
Within this cold capsule
unable to expand, frozen
limbs ache with limitations
of tight thoughts.
let thaw my mind
melting madness, tips to toes
until I sting with vitality
of circulation returning.
unwilling to still my spirit
any longer, wind brings
deliverance of movement.
© Ali Grimshaw 2019
The Call
Just as she reached for the door
tear stained cheeks accompanied trembling
a last glance back.
Too numb, her sadness departed months ago.
The ringing phone called out to her
a nick of time, just right hesitation
before the unchangeable conclusion
could be undone.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
“Sometime round about the 1580s the phrase in the nick or in the very nick began to be used for the critical moment, the exact instant at which something has to take place. The idea seems to have been that a nick was a narrow and precise marker, so that if something was in the nick it was precisely where it should be.” http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-nic2.htm
National Suicide Prevention Week – click here for resources
Plotting a Course – Poem by Ali Grimshaw
Another sunrise through our window
light of reexamination
realization of the rich journey
the roads I would have not taken
without your vastly different
sense of direction
neither of us see West the same
but agree, it is not the end of our daylight.
© Ali Grimshaw 2019
d’Verse – Quadrille #80 challenge
flashlight batteries - Ali Grimshaw 