Under the willow tree a girl
was standing, lonely with
the worst of nights ahead.
They said
drink from the tar pit waters and swallow
the oysters that lost their shells.
She saw the drug the wind made
though she did not let it shift her steadfast heart.
Everywhere the notion stood
that fighting back is better than
the tender wave, better than
empathy and believing in affection.
The willow leaves have gone brown and the girl has moved
beside a cliff. She dances as though she
could not fall. And though they gasp to pity
her poor body against rocks and ridges,
she continues to move like a beautiful sound,
sure of the hand that guides her.
© Allison Grayhurst
Excerpt from the book “Trial And Witness – Selected Poems”
Now Available on Amazon.com
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.
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