I Long To Know (by Allison Grayhurst)

I Long To Know

I long to know the things

I never dreamt

beneath the shingles

and the watered-down dawn.

I long to know the name

of every insect that brushes

my cheek and the passions

of days long gone.

I sit beside the narrow rocks

and count each weathered stone.

I hope for love inside a stranger

and long to feel with fingers and soul

the connecting thread

that binds me to my enemy’s door.

* * * * *

Allison Grayhurst is
a full member of the League of Canadian Poets. She has over 300 poems
published in more than 180 international journals, magazines, and
anthologies.

Her book Somewhere Falling
was published by Beach Holme Publishers, a Porcepic Book, in Vancouver
in 1995. Since then she has published ten other books of poetry and four
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 recently published by Ottawa publisher above/ground press December 2012.

She lives in Toronto with family. She also sculpts, working with clay.

On This Dock (by Allison Grayhurst)

On This Dock

I hear the white steed
and the fish together
in dark obscurity.
I look at the body,
the children weeping to gain control.
I listen for the perishing wind
and declare to it a vigil
of telltale strength.
The journey here faces
the drive of instinct — to buckle
in and walk the safest hallway
or to carry the weight of failure
and still harbour a cry to the fox and a belief
in the many shapes of heaven.

The journey knows its evening
has come and all the beautiful clouds will drop
one by one from the sky.



* * * * *

Allison Grayhurst is a full member of the League of Canadian Poets. She has over 300 poems published in more than 180 international journals, magazines, and anthologies.

Her book Somewhere Falling was published by Beach Holme Publishers, a Porcepic Book, in Vancouver in 1995. Since then she has published ten other books of poetry and four 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 recently published by Ottawa publisher above/ground press December 2012.

She lives in Toronto with family. She also sculpts, working with clay.