Oh what can be unfolded inside my twisted heart by sunlight on water as artful swimmers ease through surface and depth as one painting. I'm captivated by colors that ask What is truly lasting? When the world shouts, IMPOSSIBLE! Love replies, "Just watch me." © Ali Grimshaw 2023 Quadrille #168 - Fold Learn more about this and join the fun HERE Photo taken in Croatia 2023.
I expect to wake each morning. Safely carried through night's passing. How have I not noticed this? Before dreams retreat, my feet finding floor. Safely carried through night's passing. Pixelating myself onto this day's screen. Before dreams retreat, my feet finding floor. I have taken wholeness for granted. Pixelating myself onto this day's screen. Standing in this ordinary. I have taken wholeness for granted. Movement is my freedom to be. Standing in this ordinary. How have I not noticed this? Movement is my freedom to be. I expect to wake each morning. © Ali Grimshaw 2023
Join us at dVerse for Open Link LIve #348, this Saturday, October 14 at 7:00 AM PST or wherever you are in your time zone. Come to listen or read a poem. Visit dVerse Poets’ Pub HERE for details. See you there.
“Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the unknown.” – Anthony Bourdain
One, listen for the sound of water moving freely it finds a way forward without argument over moss, between stones. Two, follow the rain slicked planks built to cross this earthy beauty in curved rather than straight lines. Three, notice how many shades of green exist chartreuse, emerald cucumber, pine. Look again, then again. Name some of your own making watermoss. Four, feel mist envelope as raindrops greet you are water too. Five, sing forth your internal compass join the hum of molecules one song is enough. © Ali Grimshaw 2023 Written in Response to "Five Directions to My House" by Juan Felipe Herrera. Hear him read his poem HERE. This prompt came from dVerse Poets' Pub. Come join a friendly, welcoming community of poets. Photograph taken at Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia.
Arched islands like backs of resting animals
cooling in the sea.
White ships glide as water skippers
to cross morning skin of blue shimmer.
An impressionist scene of morning
as bikes are unloaded with laughter and Croatian directives.
One man leaning over the boat railing.
One man below.
One bicycle at a time.
Until the two-wheeled collective has left the ship.
They create a peloton premonition on the sidewalk below.
My anticipating heart beats in synch
with the surrounding islands
as the sky opens.
I have been traveling by boat and by bicycle in Croatia. What a gorgeous country.
Goodbyes, they come in all shapes and sizes. My poem, ROLL DOWN THE WINDOW, PLEASE, is about the complex feelings of saying goodbye to a child that has grown to adulthood. A huge thank you to Visual Verse for publishing it. Please follow the link to give it a read. Here. Visual Verse: An Anthology of Art and Words One image, one hour, 50-500 words. The picture is the starting point, the text is up to you. Consider submitting and reading the amazing pieces shared on this site. It is one of my favorites.
Join a welcoming community of poets at dVerse Poets’ Pub for Open Link Night. Share one poem of your choosing. HERE
oh goddesses of green grand guardians I pine for you still your assembly of sacred shade moss-softness watercolored pools diving deeply your wild emerald waters left me yearning for freedom like a river rush of riverstones cool slide of ease no thoughts for tomorrow © Ali Grimshaw 2023 Join a welcoming community of poets at dVerse, for Quadrille #182 Are You Pining for Poems? - HERE Photo taken last week in the wilds of Washington state. Thankfully this forest has been spared the wildfires.
Lavender dusk of sky mingles with the sweet breath of gardenia mist view. Hush scatters across them all so as not to forget it's tenderness. A blanket for the many homeless wanderers in need of comfort tonight. © Ali Grimshaw 2023 A few years back I wrote a post it note for myself. It lives on my bathroom wall. This note is to remind me how to get back on track when I feel out of sorts. It says, “Whenever I am in service to others I know exactly who I am.” If I am confused or down all I need to do is get in action to serve someone else. Love is an action and when I take authentic action to serve others I regain my footing in life.
Dipping skinny-style, screaming out in glee, we entered the river to revive. Jumping away from the heated August afternoon only to return to the warm rocks and bask like turtles. Then followed hours of our rinse and repeat cycle as sunlight slid down the river. Summer freedom was its own kind of happy without the constraints of parents or the weight of planning for the future to come. We flew through the air trusting the pools to welcome us with a generosity that had held so many before our time. There were no thoughts of tomorrow.
bubbled free
water nymphs laze
summertide
©Ali Grimshaw 2021
four bicycles, four riders "let's make a memory" breezes of golden summer delight our pedaling legs freedom like five-year-olds without wonderings for tomorrow (half-way across the bridge I pause to snap this photo even knowing it will never capture this preciousness) coasting clear of any fear spontaeous spirits led us here four of us riding toward a view in transition one point of light arriving at a time © Ali Grimshaw 2023
This photo was indeed taken halfway across the Brooklyn Bridge in the summer of 2019. It is a memory I treasure.
droplets lit in multitudes mists amaze my smoldering skin relieved from scorch Maidenhair ferns sway continually free-dancing delight a refreshing release quenching my dry soul hours away from news headlines riverwalking our footprints in dust replace each other chasing cascadas to find hopeful waters © Ali Grimshaw 2023 Join me at dVerse Poets' Pub HERE for Quadrille #180, 44 words of your choice. Use some form of the word water. Photo taken at Tunnel Falls, Oregon. A 12 mile hike to magic.
flashlight batteries - Ali Grimshaw 