Could this be the final day
of an autumn that I thought would last?
A mellowing of red between us
once crackling emotions now dust bits
collected in a whirling dervish
carried away in the wind.
Now I am an empty street waiting
for the street light to click on.
Predictable and ever awed
by the chance
to begin again.
© Alicia Grimshaw Reposting from 2016
I remain
steadfast
on the shoreline
tethered, weathered
yet still afloat.
My life preserver
ready to be thrown
your way.
Waiting
for your signal.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
National Suicide Prevention Week September 10 – 16, 2017
http://stopasuicide.org/index.php
Reach out. You could save a life.
Photo Challenge – Waiting Photo taken in Varenna Italy, 2016.
Your phrases landed on the floor
between us. I didn’t know how to catch them.
Strings of words, a story of near miss.
One collection of minutes that almost
restructured my life, like petals
blown away by the wind
never again to unite in beauty.
A reminder of the impermanence of us.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
My head sits
on cords of screaming tension
inability to relax into
whirl of busyness, cyclone
of storms around my being
interference between me
and the presence
I wish to give you.
Please forgive my current cloudiness.
Blow this weather to the corner of the room.
I want to sit with you.
“What is the state of your heart?”
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
Inspired by OMID SAFI – “Let us insist on a type of human-to-human connection where when one of us responds by saying, “I am just so busy,” we can follow up by saying, “I know, love. We all are. But I want to know how your heart is doing.” “
How do you capture
a lifetime of fatherhood
put it down on the page?
Your voice in times of doubt
your hand on my shoulder
your cup always half full.
Yet, it wasn’t what you said
year after year that I remember most
you stood beside
you held up others
you lead with love.
You showed me.
Dedicated to my dearly loved father, Thomas Jenkins, who has fathered many over the years as an educator and coach. No words will ever be enough to tell you how much I love you.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
Random thoughts collect in her hair.
Ideas shed by passers by
printed in fonts, large and small
nestled in her curls.
Within the crowd ideas conflict
like a crash of cymbals.
She swallows them all
continues to shift the molecules
search for a new formula
that makes sense.
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
© Alicia Grimshaw 2017
Never adrift
always within arm’s length
inseparable as far back
as memory will reach,
weathered worn wise
with fantasies of
chain breaking
to float free.
flashlight batteries - Ali Grimshaw 