Breath from within me floats out to join yours,
to settle on the brown ground beside
join the atmosphere’s chorus
sing with our exhale.
The tree we sit beneath is not excluded from our song.
Lightly soft, it hums new life down upon us.
With static on the radio world leaders move their pieces, play tunes of war.
Under the tree we continue to breathe each other.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017/Rewrite 2019
Thank you to Brian Geiger at Vita Brevis Poetry Magazine for sharing my voice this week by publishing, Transient. Click on the title to give it a read and while you are there savor some of the words from amazing poets.
Vita Brevis Press is a small publisher dedicated to emerging and established poets, circulating their work in an online magazine and in physical anthologies. The Vita Brevis Poetry Magazinepublishes some of the best emerging poets out there, pairing their work with tonally relevant artwork.
why are we so afraid of
the tender, exposure of
inside, gently cradled by
toughness skinned over
unconscious callousness
from days of survival,
thick with not letting
anyone in, to touch
the real, born within us.
© Ali Grimshaw 2019
THE TENDERNESS PROJECT IS AN EXPERIMENT IN RADICAL EMPATHY CURATED BY ROSS GAY AND SHAYLA LAWSON. IT RECOGNIZES THE TENDERNESSES THAT APPEAR IN THE MARGINS AND LIGHTS THESE TINY SPACES.
awe is beauty’s cousin
his arms around her
tipping her chin up
toward the light
© Ali Grimshaw 2019
I notice,
I remember,
yet I have no idea
what you gave for
my freedoms.
I see,
I listen for,
those without,
who don’t
have freedom yet.
I pray,
that we never stop,
reaching toward each other
with open hands.
© Ali Grimshaw 2019
Happy July 4th.
Let’s not let the past stop us from creating the future.
At the seasonal station
the train of life only pauses
departure depends on your duration
illusion of control blankets nature’s causes.
Days to nights shift and the engineer steers
hibernating bunks of linked sleepers softly
breathe away their past selves
rhythm of the planet moves through the years.
Travelers lulled to comforted right
cycle of no endings, wheels freely spin
balance tipped toward the night
untouchable by human error, solstice arrives again.
© Ali Grimshaw 2019
What if I wrote what could not be asked
the inappropriate bold words, or a question
that made you cringe slightly with wonder.
Left it on your desk, scented paper
inside an envelope that you would need to choose
to open or not, wondering who it could be from
unmarked, with just your cursive name penned upon
the front. Leaving you to hesitate with the thrill
of good or bad news to come.
© Ali Grimshaw 2019
flashlight batteries - Ali Grimshaw 