Poetry

Putting the pieces back

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 33 Comments

 

I will walk beside you. Fill your cracks

with care. Speak your strengths, over

and over until they are glue. Help you

see all truly beautiful things were once

broken. I will love you with abandon

pour a hot cup of tea. Search for your

missing shards. Pluck out sharp words

used for self-inflicted pain. Chant, cheer,

and call your name. I will run ahead

to look for danger and get behind to push.

But please know you have the final piece

to set in place. I can’t make you whole again.

© Ali Grimshaw 2017

Photo thanks to PIXABAY

#Loveuary Challenge 

 

Please don’t give up on love.

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 16 Comments

enlight1

Go and find love today

for it surrounds us like

good soup from a friend,

sunlight through trees,

the laughter of children.

Give love today and you will

feel its touch.

Happy Valentine’s Day to my friends around the world!

The Open Space

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 10 Comments

love is an open space

not yet filled place

a hand reaching out

ready

without expectation

 

large, tiny, tattooed, wrinkled

skin darker or lighter

held out to you

love is there

if you return the

reach.

© Ali Grimshaw 2017

#Loveuary and Love Day Blog Party at But I Smile Anyway…

Solitude of the heart

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 4 Comments

In the solitude of these chambers

my heart remembers how to breathe.

Cool air pulled in, an inflation of freedom

expansion completed. To rise and fall,

again, again, again…

My internal rhythm,

muscles in unison,

ceaselessly at work,

to fill me from toes to earlobes,

without my acknowledgement

or praise.

An intake of peaceful,

taken for granted,

to keep this heart beating

another day.

© Ali Grimshaw 2017

Celebrate #Loveuary with the blog But I Smile Anyway

Photo Challenge – Solitude

Love is never closed for business.

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 10 Comments

enlight1

With love there is always room at the table.

Bring what you have to share

even if it is just a memory, a song.

Together we will make a meal to feed

not just our stomachs

our souls shall be satisfied

nourished through connection.

Your stories on my tongue

sweet and savory.

© Ali Grimshaw 2017

 

Celebrate #Loveuary with But I Smile Anyway…

 

The future of heartbreak

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 8 Comments

“How do you keep your heart whole?” he asked. “I can’t bear the breaking.”

“You don’t,” she whispered. “Let it crack open,

like a ruby pomegranate full of moments you have been alive.
Tear away the soft sides, let the jeweled pieces scatter.

They will be found.  Picked up by the parched,
carried forward into days where hearts
will be strong enough to break, expand.”

“I am not that strong.” he said, shaking his head.

Tearing off a part of her own heart.

“Take some of my mine, you will be.”

© Ali Grimshaw 2017

#Loveuary – share the love this month with But I Smile Anyway…

Heart wide open

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 32 Comments

Today I wrote a gift for you

my pen pulled my hand along, (it is braver than I)

it knows how to lay my heart wide open,

like a prairie to the sky

nowhere to hide, expansive and still

miles from adequate for what I wish to give.

© Ali Grimshaw 2017

February is the month of love. I will be celebrating with love poems all month long.

#Loveuary – inspired by Ritu at But I Smile Anyway…

Photo credit to Nicolas T.

 

When change comes …

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 11 Comments

Waking to a foreign experience

like a transplanted language

that spread through the city while I slept.

I used to trust myself to know the way

right turn, then straight, always on course.

Within my country, I thought I knew where I was.

Now my GPS offers no help. No translation available.

Consistent landscape. Buildings in place

yet unrecognizable to my inner navigation.

My compass now cracked, unable to orient

true North now lies

inside me.

© Ali Grimshaw 2017

Discovery Challenge – Conventional Wisdom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Quiet of Grace

~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 13 Comments

Dressed in white, they gather

a sacred opening, shared hush

They lean in to listen for what is to come.

My eyes honored guests to witness their glory.

One of few who will attend this party today.

© Ali Grimshaw 2017

Photo Challenge – Graceful