Hard Time Singing by Allison Grayhurst

By Raja's Insight on June 5, 2019 • ( 0 )

The ground that grows

the wasteful blight and

estranges the kiss and hiss of wildlife

is in me like a slaughtered tribe

that has no face.

I am in the nightmare cloud, wrapped

in tar and rotted wood. I hide

beneath the blanket, undone.

Sickness has walked around me, mile

around mile, and names me this stone chiseled

in two. It is the beginning, but it is midnight

and I am marked to be unmoved.

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

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.