The Peace of Angels I will release to recieve the peace of angels. I will count the changes as realizations, tip over the radicalized, and be singular in my transcendence. Purpose is a translation. Within are experiences discarded or validated by memories. Floating or being summoned are counterweights, dangerous to stand anywhere but in the middle. Loss is a hot vapor - burns as it first rises and then, no more. Love is everything - fills a moment with the breath of eternity. I will find the color that draws me the closest and I will choose it. I will release the rest, know this surrender as an exhale, a baptism to witness that splits the sky.
Although ILA Magazine first published Allison's poem, "The Peace of Angels" in the Editor's Choice section of Issue # 3, May/June Edition, it was a choice to include it into her feature here, as well.
DOWN STREAM
Savage poison eclipsing the Wolf moon. Time is putrid, embracing me like an impending slaughter. Can't stop the attack no matter how hard I strain, or promise to defend the purity of my thoughts. It will come to no good end, going on to this end, head in a block wrench, dreams staggering crippled out of sight. Come back before I smash my back on a long fall down the stairs, into the darkness, past purgatory, past the tragically resigned. Come on, enough of this fated disaster. For months now I've held my own, held my head high, praised every morning with directed action. I can't go back, picking through the rotting carnage, pretending, giving energy to the pretense, when my energy is sacred, belongs to you O God and nothing else. Please save me from this hissing atrocity, this lethal succubus and the flashing behind my eyes - the gigantic war inside, knife wielding, piercing, rein-less and the dark blood pain. Please O God and Jesus, breathe your light into me, fully. Let me love you the best I can. Is there anything I can do? Is there any chance for a miracle? The shades are being pulled. The dungeon steps are steep and I am heading down, into that familiar filthy chamber. Please take my hand, O God, lead me into the open air and say "Go on your way - you are mine, no longer a stranger.
CONSECRATED
In a murky limpid place
you speak to me, vanquish my
anxieties with your radiant flame,
speak and say
the circumference is the sphere, is the line
and the space beyond
the sphere.
Cruelty is natural, mercy takes effort,
choice, consciousness.
Accepting mercy takes even more, a leap
out of the perpetual karma-shadows, a daring
to be without a past or a people or pebble stones
in your shoes.
You speak and say
succumb, and I will take your greed of self -
knowledge,
all of your knowing, intelligence, reduce it to vapor,
collapse your preconceptions with the tranquility of
the first morning, and you will praise me with the
wonder
of all who are newborn, without guise or storages.
Fall down, you say, to your hands and knees.
Look up, you say, to the charity of the sky.
Your being that was before is burned.
You say, love,
and I will be your restitution,
your water, your vortex, your art.
Allison Grayhurst is a member of the League of Canadian Poets. Four of her poems were nominated for "Best of the Net" in 2015/2018, and one eight-part-story-poem was nominated for "Best of the Net" in 2017. She has over 1, 260 poems published in more than 500 international journals and anthologies.
In 2018, her book, "Sight at Zero", was listed #34 on CBC's "Your Ultimate Canadian Poetry List."
In 2020, her work was translated into Chinese and published in "Rendition of International Poetry Quarterly" and in "Poetry Hall."
Her book, "Somewhere Falling", was published by Beach Holme Publishers, a Porcepic Book, in Vancouver in 1995. Since then, she has published sixteen other books of poetry and six collections with Edge Unlimited Publishing. Prior to the publication of "Somewhere Falling", she had a poetry book published, "Common Dream", and four chapbooks published by The Plowman. Her poetry chapbook, "The River is Blind", was published by Ottawa Publisher Above/Ground Press, December 2012. In 2014, her chapbook, "Surrogate Dharma", was published by Kind of a Hurricane Press, Barometric Pressures Author Series. In 2015, her book, "No Raft - No Ocean", was published by Scars Publications, as well as her book, "Make the Wind" in 2016. Her book, "Trial and Witness - selected poems", was published in 2016 by Creative Talents Unleashed (CTU Publishing Group). More recently, her book, "Tadpoles Find the Sun", was published by Cyberwit, August 2020. She is a vegan. She lives in Toronto with her family. She also sculpts, working with clay, in her spare time.
You can read more about Allison on her website at:
https://www.allisongrayhurst.com
Vancouver-based singer/songwriter/musician, Diane Barbarash, has transformed eight of Allison Grayhurst's poems into songs, creating a full album entitled, "River - Songs from the Poetry of Allison Grayhurst, released in 2017.
Some of the places Allison's work has appeared in, include Parabola (Alone & Together Print Issue, Summer 2012); SUFI Journal (Featured Poet in Issue # 95, Sacred Space); Elephant Journal; Literary Orphans; Blue Fifth Review; The American Aesthetic; The Brooklyn Voice; Five2One; Agave Magazine; JuxtaProse Literary Magazine; Drunk Monkeys; Now Then Manchester; South Florida Arts Journal; Gris-Gris; Buddhist Poetry Review; The Muse - An International Journal of Poetry; Storm Cellar; Morphrog (sister publication of Frogmore Papers); New Binary Press Anthology; Starlight Literary Magazine (print); Chicago Record Magazine; The Milo Review; Foliate Oak Literary Magazine; The Antigonish Review; Dalhousie Review; the New Quarterly; Wascana Review; Poetry Nottingham International; The Cape Rock; Ayris; Journal of Contemporary Anglo-Scandinavian Poetry; The Toronto Quarterly; Existere; Fogged Clarity; Boston Poetry Magazine; Decanto; White Wall Review.
All submitted poems are the author's work and she owns the copyrights.
Allison Grayhurst
Toronto, Canada
Email: allisongrayhurst@rogers.com