Poetry Has Arms – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

January 11, 2025January 11, 2025 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 7 Comments

Poetry has arms
to reach beyond borders
stretch across isles
swim channels of shame
while handing our fresh hankies
for tears of lost love.

Poetry has arms
to hold, comfort, and allow
for all to be felt
the sharp, the cut wide open
poetry pushes no one away.

All are welcome
through this doorway.

I started writing circles with the desire to reach just a few, share my flashlight, and listen with compassion. The last four years have brought your voices on the breeze, across seas stanzas sailed, flew and walked themselves beyond boundaries. I have heard your hearts.
Throughout my facilitating of writing circles I have witnessed authentic sharing and heartfelt listening. I believe the practice of writing and reflecting together is a powerful agent of change. At an event I attended recently Mark Nepo said, “Global humanity’s health depends on healthy souls keeping the literacy of the heart alive.” This resonated with me. Let’s come together and do this in the writing circle.

Are you curious about exploring possibilities through poems? Are you seeking a sisterhood to write and reflect? Are you wanting a loving space to purposefully pause?

Listening for Possibility – Writing Circle Series With Ali

Three Saturdays: January 25, February 8, February 22, 2025
9:30 – 11:00 am PDT on Zoom

During each session we will listen to poems and each other, listen inward for the needs of the heart and explore the doors we want to open next.

This group will be held to six participants to allow deep listening and sharing.

$75 for the series

Payment through PayPal paypal.me/LIfeByDesignOR or Venmo at Alicia-Grimshaw

Whether you are inspired to join me or not I would love to hear from you. I am looking for ways to be of service to others through writing.

Wishing you wellness and peace,

Ali

Belief in Planting – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

November 30, 2024 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 21 Comments

“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” – John Muir

As I dug deeply down to tuck you in safely, one by one, in softness, grounded for growth with care and wishes for your survival. (Awareness of my lack of qualifications and experience crowded into the activity like a boisterous neighbor who wasn’t invited. “This won’t work. You don’t know what you’re doing.”)

As I put my shovel away, I am thinking about internal resistance. My resistance to planting, to bothering with placing all of you in the earth. My head saying, “You’re doing it wrong. You will be disappointed.” My heart replying, “Let’s try. I need to wonder.”

Now I am pondering, curious actually, what would it be like to live without a belief in planting. Realizing I already know. I have been there and don’t want to go back.

I am seeding a future I cannot see. I am planting hope in the dark cold of winter. This includes garlic cloves and my belief in loving action to grow the next. Stepping into the unknowable with a curious heart that knows it doesn’t always work out and planting it anyway.

Later that day I found three more cloves in my pocket. Three that escaped planting day. Their potential is not lost. I will find time to tuck them to bed too.

Cover them with leaves.

© Ali Grimshaw 2024

Thank you Stephanie Matlock for nurturing my inner farmer and gifting me garlic to plant. You are the Garlic Master! Cobblestone Farms, LLC.

Cross My Fingers – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

October 28, 2024 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 16 Comments



To see, feel, hold, wake 
determination cycles, knowing mistakes

enduring without audience
multi-stepped blossomed awareness
winging it

drenched ducks in a row
elation evaporation
mind marathons

love injects herself into the race

- all this comes after 
promising 

if your words are
tattooed as you

© Ali Grimshaw 2024

Join a welcoming community of poets
for today's prompt - promise. HERE.

Rebalancing – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

September 25, 2024 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 4 Comments

“Noticing you’ve lost your balance is part of finding it again. Recognizing (and normalizing) imbalance is part of rebalancing.” – Lea Seigen Shinraku

Check out Lea’s free Love Yourself Now With Art Journaling Workshop on October 6 HERE.

Rebalancing

when she noticed her tilt
an unequal stance leaning toward tumble

she was lucky enough to remember
and send herself love to reorient, 
instead of judgement

when the rainstorm arrived 
she welcomed it without resistance
befriending her tipping vessel

rebalancing was just part of living
she could find her way drenched, 
as well as, dry

I have found writing with others to be a beautiful way to rebalance. Join me for an upcoming circle of poems, writing, and reflective listening. Email to register at coaching@aligrimshaw.com

Upcoming Writing Circles:

Saturday, October 12, 9:30 – 11:00 am PDT $20

Saturday, November 2, 9:30 – 11:00 am PDT $20

Saturday, December 7, 9:30 – 11:00 am PDT $20

Some of the Time – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

June 8, 2024 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 19 Comments

Sometimes
the light turns red before we have left the intersection
leaving our tail end vulnerable

sometimes
our brakes don’t work, spinning on black ice with
blurred windows of reaction

sometimes
we must go slowly, inching through the fog in faith
blinded by dense thoughts

sometimes
breakdowns leave us on the rainy roadside
unpacking resourcefulness

sometimes
forgiveness shows up like an invitation
an off-ramp never seen before

sometimes
we just need to stay on the road
grip and steer

This was written in 2019 and still resonates with me today. This driving metaphor definitely places me in a car-centered culture. Each of us is navigating our way through the day. Be kind and assume the best intentions of others.

Join a welcoming group of poets for Open Link Night -dVerse Poets’ Pub HERE.

I took this photo in Lisbon, Spain. Such a fun curve in the street.

Posted on The Drabble in 2022. You can find some great short poems on this site.

Growing With The Trees – Poems by Ali Grimshaw

May 31, 2024 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 23 Comments

before becoming

Mother Bird, she heard forest

leaves speak layered peace

© Ali Grimshaw 2024

Photo taken on a walk in the Karura Forest, Kenya.

She led me to… Poem by Ali Grimshaw

May 10, 2024 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 40 Comments


She led me to
the library, fed stories to my ears
taught me how to keep the family blood circulating
to pull my shoulders back, stand proud

she showed me laughter around the table
camping in cold rain, beauty beyond lipstick
the effective use of stubborn determination

she made a million meals without consideration
flowered apron ready dinners with a smile
Did she even enjoy cooking? 
I don't remember anyone asking her.

She washed clothes, replacing them in drawers
a revolving door of dirty to clean
just another behind the scenes devotion.

How much did we notice the way
she kept the boat afloat
watching for leaks while we slept.

© Ali Grimshaw 2024

This poem is in honor of my mother, grandmothers, and all the mothers in my family tree who made me who I am today. Thank you.

Happy Mother's Day

Join a welcoming community of poets
at dVerse Poets' Pub, HERE
for Open Link Night. Share one poem
of your choosing and read what other's
share.

Shall We Take A Vote? – Poem by Ali Grimshaw

April 29, 2024 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 32 Comments



a dazzle of zebras
a tower of giraffes
and the alligators gathering
        a congregation

how did these words arrive
and who says we can't 
extend the collectives

I'm voting for a blaze of 
cherry tomatoes

still sunwarm at dusk
a party in every bite

© Ali Grimshaw 2024

I first learned about a dazzle of zebras on a trip to Kenya in 2023. What a great word. This poem led me down a rabbit hole to learn more about the history of collective nouns. Here is a fun article if you are curious, A Shrewdness of Apes? Collective Nouns Are a 500-Year-Old Language Fad

Join a welcoming community of poets
at dVerse Poets' Pub, HERE. Tonight's challenge - write a quadrille using the word blaze.

Poems from the Circle – It is not just…

March 28, 2024 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 13 Comments

Within the writing circle, I use poems as prompts. Each person is invited to let their words fall onto the page. During a recent gathering, we wrote from Kim Russell’s poem, Just Saying. It was the perfect poem to jump from. Thank you, Kim.

In celebration of two people who recently tried the writing circle for the first time I am sharing their poems. It takes courage to share your voice and hear it reflected back to you. Thank you to Tandy and Frannie.

It’s not just a thought.
It’s the feelings and hope of a new tomorrow.
It’s not just a dream.
It’s the past remembered, re-created, and processed
to form the future.
It’s not just a memory
it’s all the memories that come together from the depth
of the soul and leave a mark on the world.
It’s not just me. It’s everyone who has come
before me and everyone who will come after to continue the circle.

By Tandy Wolf

It is not just a memory
it is the past awaking in the mind
time long and short ago sorted and squished
into shapes and colors and whispers
to ignite present feelings.

It is not just bird songs
but wafts of melodious sounds
carried on a spring breeze
swirling and drifting into a grateful consciousness.

By Frannie Brindle

Have you opened your curtain today?

January 18, 2024 ~ Ali Grimshaw ~ 7 Comments

Let there always be light
let light always be

shining to see you through
let light reach you

© Ali Grimshaw 2024

If you are like me, you have a lot to feel right now. This can be heartbreaking and sometimes even make you feel alone. I am offering these upcoming writing circles for you to pause and gather your words. It is the delight of my heart to hold space for you.

In these circles, we will be slowing down to listen for…