soft
giggles
like crumbs of encouragement
warm
murmurs
like holding a shaking hand
pillows of
intention
there to catch you
if,
just if.
©Ali Grimshaw 2025
Photo of a happy summer memory and young lovers.
We are stronger together.
Poetry
The Noticing – Poem by Ali Grimshaw
In the grocery store parking lot I stopped.
I stopped when I saw her shining above.
What glory, she captivated the sky
and the cold felt fresh, an awakening to
the noticing. The beautiful that no one
can ever take away. The moon, a bright planet
accompanying her, together in the dark
stilled my breath. How lucky that the noticing
still lives within me. So many have forgotten
to look up.
© Ali Grimshaw 2025
In these dark times it is more important than ever to share you light. Sending you mine.
What will you pair together? – Poem by Ali Grimshaw
teapot with toaster
smokey skies, lost hope
bridges, boundaries
hints of forgiveness, open passageways
returning again to locked doors
rainboots greeting purposeful puddle stomping
associations that may or may not
be related depending on who is listening
what will you put with that word?
© Ali Grimshaw 2025
Visit a friendly poetry community at dVerse Poets’ Pub for Quadrille Monday.
Join the fun HERE.
Photo taken of the St. John’s Bridge, Oregon.
How might you join another? – Poem by Ali Grimshaw
Inosculation, a natural wonder, encapsulates the extraordinary process where parts of two distinct trees, often of the same species but not exclusively, grow together, forming an intimate bond through self-grafting and the sharing of life-sustaining nutrients. This botanical phenomenon, with roots in Latin—ōsculārī, meaning “to kiss”—brings to life a narrative of mutual support, resilience, and interconnectedness in the realm of nature. from – Nature’s Eternal Embrace: The Extraordinary Bond of Inosculation
by Hasan
togetherness
makes the impossible
look like magic
lean in to believing
reach with both hands
trust in love
© Ali Grimshaw 2025
Studying the Landscape – Poem by Ali Grimshaw
“The storm’s ravages had not only opened her eyes, but her heart and mind as well. What mattered was the present moment. The people she was with. She may never be fully free of the past, and the future might bring more struggle. But the here and now wasn’t a place to hide. It was hers to live.”
– from The Medicine Woman of Galveston by Amanda Skenandore
Distant views calmed her mind
these cliffs, twisted roads, rugged mountains were relatable.
A smooth life could not create this kind of beauty
and once again nature was teaching her how to navigate sorrows.
What remains an obstacle may depend on the point from which she observed the landscape.
Photo taken at Colorado National Monument 2024.
Today in the U.S. we honor Martin Luther King, Jr., and in his honor, I am reflecting on perseverance.
Poetry Has Arms – Poem by Ali Grimshaw
Poetry has arms
to reach beyond borders
stretch across isles
swim channels of shame
while handing our fresh hankies
for tears of lost love.
Poetry has arms
to hold, comfort, and allow
for all to be felt
the sharp, the cut wide open
poetry pushes no one away.
All are welcome
through this doorway.
© Ali Grimshaw 2025
I started writing circles with the desire to reach just a few, share my flashlight, and listen with compassion. The last four years have brought your voices on the breeze, across seas stanzas sailed, flew and walked themselves beyond boundaries. I have heard your hearts.
Throughout my facilitating of writing circles I have witnessed authentic sharing and heartfelt listening. I believe the practice of writing and reflecting together is a powerful agent of change. At an event I attended recently Mark Nepo said, “Global humanity’s health depends on healthy souls keeping the literacy of the heart alive.” This resonated with me. Let’s come together and do this in the writing circle.
Are you curious about exploring possibilities through poems? Are you seeking a sisterhood to write and reflect? Are you wanting a loving space to purposefully pause?
Listening for Possibility – Writing Circle Series With Ali
Three Saturdays: January 25, February 8, February 22, 2025
9:30 – 11:00 am PDT on Zoom
During each session we will listen to poems and each other, listen inward for the needs of the heart and explore the doors we want to open next.
This group will be held to six participants to allow deep listening and sharing.
$75 for the series
Payment through PayPal paypal.me/LIfeByDesignOR or Venmo at Alicia-Grimshaw
Whether you are inspired to join me or not I would love to hear from you. I am looking for ways to be of service to others through writing.
Wishing you wellness and peace,
Ali
The opposite of being in a hurry – Poem by Ali Grimshaw
Silky Owlet / Photographed in Papua New Guinea / Michael Sammut
She is different from me
yet we share a desire of forests
deeply shadowed with a hundred greens.
What do her eyes see?
I think she is teaching me how to land
make steady a fragile footing
from leaf to leaf
beautifully balanced
and I am captivated.
© Ali Grimshaw 2025
Join a welcoming community at dVerse Poets' Pub.
Melissa has invited us to celebrate art in nature.
You can check it out HERE.
Daybreak – Poem by Ali Grimshaw
Each day a chance
for new green to reach us
for listening to happen in a way
that has never happened before.
For air to clear.
And for us to come together
instead of apart.
For healing to blossom
forgiveness heard, shame shifting
to break the cycle of old chains.
For mirroring your love
revealing how your eyes
have seen me forward.
For rebalancing of Earth and sky
an atmosphere where all living things
breathe without fear of suffocation.
For dormancy to begin again
or throw off its covers
to jump out of bed.
Published in Wounds I Healed: The Poetry of Strong Women
Editor Gabriela Marie Milton 2022.
This poem rings more true to me than ever. Let's keep creating a vision of love for the future.
Join us at dVerse Poets' Pub for Open Link Night. Share a poem and join in the reading of other's work. You can find us HERE.
Belief in Planting – Poem by Ali Grimshaw
“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” – John Muir
As I dug deeply down to tuck you in safely, one by one, in softness, grounded for growth with care and wishes for your survival. (Awareness of my lack of qualifications and experience crowded into the activity like a boisterous neighbor who wasn’t invited. “This won’t work. You don’t know what you’re doing.”)
As I put my shovel away, I am thinking about internal resistance. My resistance to planting, to bothering with placing all of you in the earth. My head saying, “You’re doing it wrong. You will be disappointed.” My heart replying, “Let’s try. I need to wonder.”
Now I am pondering, curious actually, what would it be like to live without a belief in planting. Realizing I already know. I have been there and don’t want to go back.
I am seeding a future I cannot see. I am planting hope in the dark cold of winter. This includes garlic cloves and my belief in loving action to grow the next. Stepping into the unknowable with a curious heart that knows it doesn’t always work out and planting it anyway.
Later that day I found three more cloves in my pocket. Three that escaped planting day. Their potential is not lost. I will find time to tuck them to bed too.
Cover them with leaves.
© Ali Grimshaw 2024
Thank you Stephanie Matlock for nurturing my inner farmer and gifting me garlic to plant. You are the Garlic Master! Cobblestone Farms, LLC.
Tide Tables of the Heart – Poem by Ali Grimshaw
when I feel that nothing matters
I will name it despair
and when a wave comes
I find quiet like
wind on my face
with the passing of the wave through me
(realization like a form of sleep apnea)
my breath returns as a gasp of awareness
unfolding the letting go is part of the wave
the part that reminds me, I am the water too
fighting to keep myself afloat is unnecessary
all depths of love are still finding us
do not fear
© Ali Grimshaw 2024
Here I stand on hope street keeping my hearthope alive.
flashlight batteries - Ali Grimshaw 