The breeze picked up
your words were carried away
by the gusts. My heart on the beach alone
as we continued to walk, I remained
jealous of the wind
holding your words so close.
© Ali Grimshaw 2017
Conversation on the beach
Poetry
Putting the pieces back
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
Please don’t give up on love.
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
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
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
Love is never closed for business.
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
“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
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 …
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
Thanks for keeping the door unlocked.
flashlight batteries - Ali Grimshaw 