Welcome the changing leaves, the
frosted flowers, the vanity of being,
of feeling one Self, whole before
the world.

Welcome the body, the counted pennies,
the child’s plight and faces lost
in midnight light, eternally forgotten.

Welcome the one who stands, the one who
praises every cried-out syllable, purges
the soul of stagnant battles, hour upon hour
smells the freshness of renewal in clenched fists
and phones that never ring.

Welcome the sound of a remembered kiss
and the ghosts that grieve forever
beside each mortal heart.

© Allison Grayhurst

Excerpt from the book “Trial And Witness – Selected Poems”

Now Available on Amazon.com

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About the Author

 Allison Grayhurst is a member of the League of Canadian Poets. Three of her poems have been nominated for Sundress Publications “Best of the Net” 2015, and she has over 850 poems published in more than 375 international journals and anthologies. Her book Somewhere Falling was published by Beach Holme Publishers in 1995. Since then she has published twelve 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 in December 2012. In 2014 her chapbook Surrogate Dharma was published by Kind of a Hurricane Press, Barometric Pressures Author Series. In 2015, her chapbook No Raft – No Ocean was published by Scars Publications. More recently, her chapbook Make the Wind was published in April 2016 by Scars Publications. She also has a chapbook Currents pending publication in 2016 with Pink.Girl.Ink. Press. She is a vegan for the animals. She lives in Toronto with her family. She also sculpts, working with clay.