Circling Back – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

October 8, 2022October 10, 2022 ~ 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
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Photo of God's Thumb Hike, Oregon Coast
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No Explanation Needed

April 26, 2020April 26, 2020 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 20 Comments

“A practice of gratitude is not about dismissing sadness, anger, fear, or confusion. Rather, it offers us the opportunity to see that we often experience multiple feelings at once; to welcome joy into the same places where we hold grief; to turn our attention to what is quietly growing and breathing day by day, which, to our possible surprise, includes ourselves.” – Kristin Lin, Editor, The On Being Project

No Explanation Needed

You don’t have to explain
how you know where to go or when

stillness brings discomfort.

You don’t have to explain
why sorrow comes and goes

tears visiting your eyes again.

You don’t have to explain
when it happened for the first time

why you feel a mountain sits upon you.

You don’t even have to explain
why it matters so much.

I never need more than just you

Just sit down
next to me, the weight
of your shoulder touching mine

© Alicia Grimshaw 2020

Photo take in Lisbon, a trip with my sweetheart.

unpuzzling the enemy

July 31, 2018July 31, 2018 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 10 Comments

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hate screams black in fear, with intent
to turn listener to stone or distraction

what you think is the opposition
dressed in defenses worn comfortably

is only, just another
scared, eyes-wide and searching

no different than the face in
your bathroom mirror each morning

Quadrille #61 – dVerse Poets Pub

Not for purchase

July 23, 2018August 4, 2018 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 19 Comments

Your judgmental gaze cannot melt
the lines of my mistakes, they have become
collective beauty I hold as my reward for living
unimaginable shapes to fill with crayoned hues
I am my own coloring book
not available for purchase

A benevolent view

July 11, 2018July 20, 2018 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 24 Comments

what you had always assumed

to be solid, now soggy sadness

water warped windows with

a view misguided, bended

memories altered the truth

will you forgive yourself

for all that was unseen before?

Forgiving Fridays at Forgiving Connects

Backyard Haiku

June 30, 2018June 26, 2018 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 13 Comments

Enlight25

Celebrate Summer.

Don’t wait.

Be present to it’s taste.

Invisible Weight

May 30, 2018May 31, 2018 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 8 Comments

Your bones scream to rest

an anvil on your chest

no dawn comes lightly.

Invite the monster to sit with you

it gains ugliness with denial

put your arm around that which

you don’t want to hold.

“When you come out of the grips of a depression there is an incredible relief, but not one you feel allowed to celebrate. Instead, the feeling of victory is replaced with anxiety that it will happen again, and with shame and vulnerability when you see how your illness affected your family, your work, everything left untouched while you struggled to survive. We come back to life thinner, paler, weaker … but as survivors. Survivors who don’t get pats on the back from coworkers who congratulate them on making it.” – Jenny Lawson’s book Furiously Happy

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