When you sit with a friend…
Poetry
With gratitude.
In January 2016 I chose to begin sharing my poems publicly. This was scary but I am glad that I took the leap. I never knew that I would end up connecting with people around the world when I started to blog. It has been the best adventure of this year of living. I am in celebration and gratitude to VerseWrights for publishing six of my poems today. VerseWrights is a wonderful daily, online poetry journal. Thank you to all my readers and for those that support poetry. Let’s keep the communication going around the world. PEACE is possible.
Sending love across lands and oceans,
Ali
It’s not possible
Can there ever be too much whole face listening,
a time when acknowledgement was no longer needed,
when kindness was overdone?
No desire for extra hands to lighten the load?
A day when being vulnerable was a waste of courage?
Letting another see your frailty a chance not worth taking?
A moment of too much love?
Walk out onto your street and look.
Those downcast eyes are the reply.
Run now, its not too late.
© Ali Grimshaw
Where do you belong?
Who decides where you fit in?
Walking into a room full of others
feeling like you don’t belong, not one of them.
Severed, the other, a misfit.
Open faces smile, glance your way.
But you have already closed the door
on belonging.
Doors open both ways. Exit this one.
Return again with this knowing
you are not held separate. Proving your worth
was never a requirement. The family of all things*
has been waiting for you.
Take this place, a space saved just for you.
Anywhere in the room will work.
Acceptance comes from inside.
* Acknowledgement to Mary Oliver’s words from her poem “Wild Geese”
© Ali Grimshaw 2016 (photo taken on the Oregon coast.)
Let’s go down to the river.
Let the current caress
ripples lap at your errors
knee deep in, “I can’t believe I did that.”
wash away mistakes of this day
to leave the clear clarity of water.
Toes numb from cold reality.
Stepping out onto the bank
with new beginnings dripping
from your feet.
© Alicia Grimshaw
As I was finishing this poem I remembered this old spiritual song. It is amazing how our minds work. I had not heard or thought of this song for many years. I have been humming it for days thinking of the countless others who sang this same song going back, year after year after year. I somehow feel a connection with those voices from the past. If you want to hear it click on this link to youtube. Let’s Go Down To The River To Pray.
Sending a package
I will write you blue sky
sunlight on yellow flowers.
I will write you a single snowflake
magnified in all its delicate brilliance.
I will write you a cocoon of comfort
a blanket of love you have never known
a full envelope, arriving on the wind, for the day
you need it most.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2016
Photo taken on a family trip to Italy 2016.
Unwind
Thinking in reverse
months tipping, like dominos
to revisit that summer day.
Longing for this cleansing pool,
an offering of chilled calmness
encircled by stone, here I joined
the river of slow movement,
pulling at my rapid pulse.
Plucking the notes ever slower.
Heartbeat dissolving
until I was
just being
water.
© Ali Grimshaw
Liberation To Come
Within this cold capsule
seen but unable to expand
my frozen limbs ache with
limitations of movement.
Let me thaw, stinging with pleasure
extending all the way to my toes.
To dance in the breeze again.
© Ali Grimshaw
Pic and a word challenge – Winter
My Leaf Man
He brings me leaves
one each day
a contrast in shape
varied vibrancy, coral to ripe peach
left on the kitchen counter
until evening arrives at our window.
Held in his palm
this single donation
color story of today
our eyes meet
the wrinkles, textured hues, imperfect edges.
Our hands hold a temporary prize between us
cherishing.
Trees give without expecting
something in return. Thankfully,
so does he.
© Ali Grimshaw 2016
May you find someone to share the beauty of nature with today. Happy Thanksgiving.
When discouragement arrives…
flashlight batteries - Ali Grimshaw 