you believe that saying the right thing will dissolve the pain, that you should know how to ascend the sunken afloat in powerlessness without the words to reach the aggrieved restore their hearts to harmony don’t be swallowed by your lacking the right words never have been what the grieving seek sufficient is whole face listening eyes intent to bridge being ears strong enough to hear without changing the subject and you can do that anyone can make that choice First published on VITA BREVIS PRESS 2018 For those are are grieving today. I send this to you with love.
Poetry Therapy
Thank you School of Blue
There are moments when what someone else has inked onto the page stops time for you when another's words absorb through your skin settling deep in your belly like a surprising crumb of nourishment you didn't know you needed. A small taste of harmony, blooming on your tongue. It opens a realizing that wasn't there before a long lasting hunger, you nibble through a second read then a third, taking your time to swallow it all. Remembering a desire for flavors that had been forgotten how good a poem could taste. ©Ali Grimshaw 2021 My poem is a response of gratitude for a poem I read today called Ice Cube on School of Blue Read the poem HERE. Thank you, Rick Frame, for the nourishment. My photo was taken near Amsterdam. A lovely, crisp morning of reflection where the sky and the water gave back to each other. LAPC #138 – Natural Light
When heaviness becomes an unwanted roommate
“It’s not the weight you carry but how you carry it – books, bricks, grief – it’s all in the way you embrace it, balance it, carry it –from Mary Oliver, “Heavy”
untold stories swallowed whole like stones in your belly can fly when spoken alight on trusted shoulders go reside elsewhere write your untold narratives scribble pain into delicate beauty burn those you are finished reading ignite just enough heat vitality is drawn to warmth © Ali Grimshaw 2021 dVerse Quadrille - Going, going, gone. Come join us.
I’m Gonna Walk It With You
“Well it looks like it might be a hard road but I’m gonna walk it with you.
And you know that you might have a heavy load but I can carry some too.”
This song is carrying me forward. I am learning the words. I am singing out even when my voice doesn’t sound pretty. Music heals and keeps us breathing. Sing yourself through the day. Here is the Youtube video. “I’m Gonna Walk It With You” by Brian Claflin and Ellie Grace
All of us
together
while separate
singing softly, for life
as we walk this road
let’s share the load
come together, while apart
in love.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2020
Sending love to all those who are scared, worried, sheltering in place. Please let me know how you are doing. I am available to listen and write with you via skype, facetime or whatsapp. Together we will get through this.
Tender – Poem by Ali Grimshaw
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.
Hum – poem by Ali Grimshaw
Behind, underneath yet also intertwined
with softly sounded movement of bees
yet not quite a song, of all that generates
thrives for growth beyond survival music.
These background singers of inspired hum
as I branch out toward new sky, consider
a transplant beyond my container
soil in colors my roots have never reached.
© Ali Grimshaw 2019
Photo taken Kauai, Hawaii 2018
Looking Glass
With the brokenness
there is a choice
to hear the mirror
or bury that which you won’t face.
Without any proof
I know you can do the hard things.
It is courage coupled with action
that matters after we fall.
Brave has always
lived inside of you,
printed in bold letters.
Step forward
cloaked in courage to
pick up only the pieces that
are worth keeping.
© Ali Grimshaw 2019
The Architecture of Conversing
Beside me, your mummers begin
repetition of words to form
a solid, something to hold on to.
As you hammer a picture in sound,
letters arrange in audible order
to hear who you are.
To speak building blocks, stack phrases
scaffold words of steel
structures to withstand tomorrow.
I am silent witness
to the rebuilding of yourself.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2019
“The most visible creators are those artists whose medium is life itself. The ones who express the inexpressible ~ without brush, hammer, clay, or guitar. They neither paint nor sculpt. Their medium is simply being. Whatever their presence touches has increased life. They see, but don’t have to draw… Because they are the artists of being alive… – Donna J. Stone
You are the landlord
Overwhelm has taken
up residence
in your brain again?
You wrote the rental
agreement, chose
the limits.
Remember, you
can evict it.
© Ali Grimshaw 2019
“I Reject Walls”: A 2019 Poetry Preview” by CRAIG MORGAN
“So here are a few of the upcoming books of poetry I’m most excited about, books that are keeping me from losing hope, books that remind me that, even as America is at its most divided, its language is about synthesis, about coming together, about dissimilar things that form a gorgeous and powerful whole. These books are angry, they’re afraid, they’re grieving and hoping; so am I. I’m grateful for their company.”
The power of poetry. You can’t help but want to see this list.
Learning to Dive
One day I finally knew that I could swim
in the blue of the sky.
That I was as strong as my declaration.
My fears, teachers made just for me.
That there would always be cracks to slip through
times of trembling, shaken awake to fall again.
Then I stood next to the lake,
a mirror of blue sky wholeness,
arms wide with acceptance
I, the problem and solution
dove into
reflection of release.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2019 (rewrite of 2017 poem)
Photo taken on a family trip to Varenna, Italy 2016
flashlight batteries - Ali Grimshaw 