poem

Purgation – Poem By Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 33 Comments

“Poetry offers the world something that’s small enough to carry close to your heart, and big enough to carry all of the ordinary things that can be encompassed in any one day.” — Pádraig Ó Tuama

Purgation

shame sweeping
disinfecting disappointment
vacuuming deeply the corners
of deliberately lost memories

I open one eye, hesitant
to take a look 
then squint until
rooted in my intention

It's possible there is
no monster of madness
in the closed cupboard of the past
just dust bunnies multiplying

and the purgation continues.

©Ali Grimshaw 2021

dVerse Open Link Night - Join a welcoming community of poets HERE.

Appearances – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 50 Comments 
I was that edge, frame frayed
threads separated whillynilly 
curving off in various directions 
nibbed and frazzle fuzzed
leading to unraveled times

with scissors, I cut loose ends
to regain control or
at least create an appearance 
of smooth evenness
but it was not an honest look

just a pretending of edged calm

© Ali Grimshaw 2021

Join us for dVerse Open Link Night HERE

Check the correct box – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 29 Comments 
How we name ourselves keeps us 
separate, collected or behind fences.

What if we lost all labels to the wind?
Started over with a single hello. 

Here is a new and rare being
a species my brain cannot categorize

outside of any box, never encountered 
right before my own human eyes.

How wonder would fill me
with the awe of you.

© Ali Grimshaw 2021

dVerse - Poetics:Connections 
A wonderful community of writers reside on dVerse Poets Pub. Come join in the fun.

Photo of mural taken in Auray, France. 2019

Sifting – Poem By Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 18 Comments 
Palms upward as hands face sky 
open spaces between fingers relaxing
into what has been a time of gentle 
and harsh scrubbing of the heart. 
Every inch of skin Brillo pad raw. 
An exfoliation of what has been. 
My fists, no longer clenched 
in tight survival, trust in slow unfurling.
Pain tingling as blood returns to fingertips.
Learning feet reground my trunk 
to an upright position, toes rooted 
past sand into bedrock. Freeing now
agile hands to sift through the helpful lessons 
caught in my soft palms as promises
while unneeded thoughts fall through finger spaces
to join other decomposing conversations 
of days when I didn't know listening.
Composting the no longer serviceable
into nutrients for the new words to come.

© Ali Grimshaw 2021

Rooted – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 54 Comments

“Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet / confinement of your aloneness / to learn / anything or anyone / that does not bring you alive / is too small for you.” – David Whyte

tug and pull, I must

still it doesn’t fit anymore

not after this year

hundreds of breaths have past

in between arrivals and goodbyes

and I am changed

now I have new thoughts

I pull on like the wool sweater

you used to wear on your

most difficult of days.

Thoughts that have rooted

myself to you

intertwined with the me

I have yet to meet.

© Ali Grimshaw 2021

dVerse Open Link Night - Join a friendly community of poets.

Happy New Year!

Wishing you deep full breaths of peace.

Blindsighted – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 28 Comments 
As we stand together
the ocean’s roar a comfort
lullaby of constant.

You squeeze 
my hand. I echo
the motion in return.

Reliable rolling waves,
we count on
when the world is crashing.

© Ali Grimshaw 2017

Solstice Lanterns – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 12 Comments 
image

When the crack widens to an unknown view
fear can squeeze in between rough edges 

slide to expand like a balloon of darkness
a barricade of shadow to seal the entrance.

Yet seekers of light will never be fooled by tricks of perspective
their wisdom of the season's shifting songs sing them forward.

Eyes of love, illumination for all
allowing forgiveness to set another place at the table

where lanterns burn long into the night.

 © Ali Grimshaw 2022

Encountering a Listener – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 62 Comments

To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night – Gibran

 when your words unchanged return, are heard
 when your song, echoed notes of hue, comes back to you
 when belonging becomes your word
 a melting occurs, gray absorbed by blue
 watercoloring you into the canvas of all
 becoming whole, no longer fearing the fall 

 Then all the colors of you are revealed
 poured forth onto the listening canvas
 of this moment. 

© Ali Grimshaw 2020

Join the dVerse Poetry Community for Tuesday Poetics

Weather Forecast – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 36 Comments
Processed with VSCO with c6 preset
Light does not fall on us equally.
There are hours of gentle illumination, while some remain in shadow.
Random flashes which leave you for no reason at the front of the line.
Or the end, randomly burned, scorched,
with head shaking disbelief. Tranquil dusk light on leaves.
Other days blinded into paralysis, unable to see a way forward.

I remain in a thundercloud waiting room, counting shadows like minutes.
Weatherizing my soul before the next hurricane.
Steadfast, determined in my stance, for a return of the glow
In stillness it will find me.
Sun’s warm hand on my back again.
This too shall pass

Ali Grimshaw 2017

Weather Forecast was first published on Vita Brevis 
Vita Brevis Press is a bestselling small publisher dedicated
to emerging and established poets, circulating their work 
in an online magazine and in physical anthologies.