
“Choosing to live and love with our whole hearts is an act of defiance. ”
– Brene Brown
"Could you write a poem for me?" you asked. Then you left before I could ask the specifics of your heart's desire. Are you in need of savory words to awaken or creamy expressions to nourish? I pondered for hours then did what I could based on the circumstances. I wrote out a mixed assortment of sizes; courageous squares of coconut, rounds of morning lips delight, cinnamon memories of warm skin and the encouragement of toffee. This sampler will be delivered to your doorstep tomorrow at 4:00 pm. Let me know which flavor left your heart wanting more. neverending waves love's ocean unstoppable I am your shoreline © Ali Grimshaw 2023 Haibun Monday 1-30-23: Heart Join us at dVerse - HERE. Photo taken in Portugal, 2017.
how many days can you claim bold aliveness kindergarten eagerness ignited intentions bright contagiousness of shared lifting sky-filled unerasable strokes readable by all baring yourself beautiful with each word from your mouth skinny-dipping freedom because words of love deserve all capitals sing unification undeniable © Ali Grimshaw 2023 Join us on dVerse for Quadrille Monday #167 BOLD-ly Go HERE Photo taken in Puerto Vallarta, Mexio.
And isn't it always the question how to begin again to feel the crackly spark of love's first touch to adventure forth eyes wide in wonder of the not knowing when or how but with surety that the next wonderful will be there remember springing out of bed because lightness was all you knew it is the endings you keep tripping over desire for only beginnings no goodbyes © Ali Grimshaw 2023
like wandering children we stepped gingerly in morning iced-light far from Christmas past far from storefronts, Amazon delivery miles from anything that necessitated wrapping we were gifted with captured stillness a fantastical frozen roadside of candied red delight reigned and our hearts were awed © Ali Grimshaw 2022 Wishing you wellness and peace wherever you are whatever you celebrate. May love land on your day. Ali Join us at dVerse Poet's Pub for Quadrille #166 HERE
“You are comprised of 84 minerals, 23 Elements, and 8 gallons of water spread across 38 trillion cells. You have been built up from nothing by the spare parts of the Earth you have consumed, according to a set of instructions hidden in a double helix and small enough to be carried by a sperm. You are recycled butterflies, plants, rocks, streams, firewood, wolf fur, and shark teeth, broken down to their smallest parts and rebuilt into our planet’s most complex living thing.
You are not living on Earth. You are Earth.”
— Aubrey Marcus
My heart has felt the isolation of cold times walls that didn't allow visitors to enter. if I had grown up in the forest sung to by the wind in the trees watched the birds flit, feed and gather in song if I had slept by the rushing river soothed by it magical movement of freedom to flow over and between if I had foraged with the bears following their lead to thread through undergrowth to find my fill would I have ever met loneliness? Does separation exist for forest dwellers moss to mouse tree to tribe river to racoon webbed connections none to separate? © Ali Grimshaw 2022 Join a welcoming community of poets for dVerse Open Link Night #327 - HERE
she wished to glue leaves of color back onto the limbs unprepared for this season's shift then frozen morning winds carried a new consideration her way could a breathe of chill be welcomed like an unexpected guest a dabbled hope through dark days? she tries this thought on, not her usual fashion, seeks to understand it's fittings then opens her dormant suitcase to laughter spilling out like sunshine a reminder of past orbits around the sun she has another day of changing sky and many clouds to capture
© Ali Grimshaw 2022
Moonwashed Musings – Dappled
"If you are faithful to living a question, that question will be faithful back to you." - Krista Tippett Living the Questions Which room do you lie down in most? The one with a sky blue ceiling of hopefulness or the backroom with walls of yesterday's old news. Where do you sit to nourish yourself? In the peach room of newness with windows open to birdsong breezes or the room of sterile white protection from the outside. What questions are you feeding yourself along with your morning tea? Who will you trust to welcome in to keep you company when you choose to remodel your next room? © Alicia Grimshaw 2022 If you only could choose one question to live into for the next week what would it be? earthweal - Open Link Weekend - join us HERE.
This poem is in response to the Pandemic Haibun Challenge that’s currently underway in the publication, A Cornered Gurl via Medium. Thank you trE for the opportunity for shared reflection.
Noticings are always within reach if your eyes are open. A friend’s phone call, text photo, or cherished smile from six feet away can keep your cup from emptiness. Yet eventually days bleed into one another, months lose their borders, leaving Mondays indistinguishable. Where weeks fall like dominoes. Small routines within repeated walls lead to smaller and smaller thinking. Loneliness swallows you into the basket of its belly. Where over time depression feeds itself with handfuls of separation. It blindfolds your eyes so slowly you that you forget that sight has been lost. You stop moving, reaching out your arms. Until one morning’s shock of sunlight reminds you there is a world beyond this box called myself.
love went missing in
a forced experiment of
awakening us
© Alicia Grimshaw 2022 Without reflection there is no opportunity to learn. What have you learned from the pandemic experience?