
love
The Open Space
love is an open space
not yet filled place
a hand reaching out
ready
without expectation
large, tiny, tattooed, wrinkled
skin darker or lighter
held out to you
love is there
if you return the
reach.
© Ali Grimshaw 2017
#Loveuary and Love Day Blog Party at But I Smile Anyway…
Solitude of the heart
In the solitude of these chambers
my heart remembers how to breathe.
Cool air pulled in, an inflation of freedom
expansion completed. To rise and fall,
again, again, again…
My internal rhythm,
muscles in unison,
ceaselessly at work,
to fill me from toes to earlobes,
without my acknowledgement
or praise.
An intake of peaceful,
taken for granted,
to keep this heart beating
another day.
© Ali Grimshaw 2017
Celebrate #Loveuary with the blog But I Smile Anyway
Love is never closed for business.

With love there is always room at the table.
Bring what you have to share
even if it is just a memory, a song.
Together we will make a meal to feed
not just our stomachs
our souls shall be satisfied
nourished through connection.
Your stories on my tongue
sweet and savory.
© Ali Grimshaw 2017
Celebrate #Loveuary with But I Smile Anyway…
The future of heartbreak
“How do you keep your heart whole?” he asked. “I can’t bear the breaking.”
“You don’t,” she whispered. “Let it crack open,
like a ruby pomegranate full of moments you have been alive.
Tear away the soft sides, let the jeweled pieces scatter.
They will be found. Picked up by the parched,
carried forward into days where hearts
will be strong enough to break, expand.”
“I am not that strong.” he said, shaking his head.
Tearing off a part of her own heart.
“Take some of my mine, you will be.”
© Ali Grimshaw 2017
#Loveuary – share the love this month with But I Smile Anyway…
Heart wide open
Today I wrote a gift for you
my pen pulled my hand along, (it is braver than I)
it knows how to lay my heart wide open,
like a prairie to the sky
nowhere to hide, expansive and still
miles from adequate for what I wish to give.
© Ali Grimshaw 2017
February is the month of love. I will be celebrating with love poems all month long.
#Loveuary – inspired by Ritu at But I Smile Anyway…
Photo credit to Nicolas T.
Thanks for keeping the door unlocked.

Will you be a rainbow?
Not qualified, no certificate, diploma
just a person, regular, no one special.
Who me? I don’t know how. Where would I start?
Listen. Open your heart. Look. Open your eyes.
An opportunity right in front of you. Yes, right there.
It won’t matter. I don’t count. It’s too late.
No one ever tires of a rainbow coming through the clouds.
Your colors impossible to see from an internal view
vivid in the eyes of those waiting.
© Ali Grimshaw 2017
Dr. Maya Angelou – Thank you for reminding me that I can be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud and to take all the rainbows of my life with me wherever I go.
Rainbow photo thanks to pixabay.com/en/rainbow-kelvenne-national-park-1372108/
Holding Hands

As we stand together
the ocean’s roar a comfort
lullaby of constant.
You squeeze my hand.
I echo the motion.
Reliable rolling waves,
we count on
when the world is crashing.
© Ali Grimshaw 2017
The Daily Post Photo Challenge – Ambience
Will you reconsider?

© Ali Grimshaw 2017