Allison Grayhurst

Allison Grayhurst is a full 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 1260 poems published in more than 500 international literary magazines, journals and anthologies in Canada, United States, England, India, Ireland, China, Scotland, Wales, Bangladesh, Romania, Austria, New Zealand, Colombia and Australia.

In 2018, her book Sight at Zero, was listed #34 on CBC’s “Your Ultimate Canadian Poetry List”.

Her book Somewhere Falling was published by Beach Holme Publishers in 1995. Since then she has published fifteen other books of poetry and five collections with Edge Unlimited Publishing.

Prior to the publication of Somewhere Falling she had a poetry book published, Common Dream (1991), and four chapbooks, (Before the Dawn, Joshua’s Shoulder, Perfect Love, and Jumana), published by The Plowman, all in 1989.

Her poetry chapbook The River is Blind was published by Ottawa publisher above/ground press in 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. More recently, her book Make the Wind was published in 2016 by Scars Publications. As well, her book Trial and Witness – selected poems, was published 2016 by Creative Talents Unleashed (CTU Publishing Group).

More recently, her book Tadpoles Find the Sun was published by Cyberwit, August 2020.

Collaborating with Allison Grayhurst on the lyrics, Vancouver-based singer/songwriter/musician Diane Barbarash transformed eight of Allison Grayhurst’s poems into songs, creating a full album. River – Songs from the poetry of Allison Grayhurst was released October 2017.

Allison Grayhurst’s completed published work to date is available to read in six volumes titled The Poetry of Allison Grayhurst – completed works from 1988 to 2017, all published in 2017 by Edge Unlimited Publishing. Selected poems from this body of work are published in Sight at Zero (selected poems 1988 to 2017), Edge Unlimited Publishing, 2017.

Allison Grayhurst also sculpts, working with clay and casting into concrete. Her sculpting body of work can be found in the published book The Sculptures of Allison Grayhurst, Edge Unlimited Publishing, 2017.

She lives in Toronto, Canada, with her husband Kyp Harness, their two children and animals. She is a vegan for the animals.

Contact the author: allisongrayhurst@rogers.com; www.allisongrayhurst.com

Some of places her 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; Agave Magazine; JuxtaProse Literary Magazine, South Florida Arts Journal; Gris-Gris; The Muse - An International Journal of Poetry, Storm Cellar, New Binary Press Anthology; The Brooklyn Voice; Straylight Literary 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; Fogged Clarity, Boston Poetry Magazine; Decanto; White Wall Review.

Book titles below were written in this order:

Book 1: Journey of the Awakening, 1997

Book 2: The Longing to Be, 1998

Book 3: Death and Other Possibilities, 2000

Book 4: Outliving the Inevitable, 2002

Book 5: Into My Mortal, 2004

Book 6: Red thread - Black thread, 2006

Book 7: The Many Lights of Eden, 2008

Book 8: Pushing Through The Jelly Fire, 2010

Book 9: The River is Blind, 2012

Book 10: Seamless - A Collection of Love Poems 2012

Book 11: If I Get There - Poems of Faith and Doubt, a collection 2012

Book 12: Wallpaper Stars, 2013

Book 13: For Every Rain - a collection of early poems 2013

Book 14: Jumana and Perfect Love - two poetic prose pieces 2013

Book 15: Walkways, 2014

Book 16: As My Blindness Burns - three long poems, 2014

Book 17: Our Children Are Orchards - collected poems about animals, children and pregnancy, 2015

Book 18: Fire and more, 2016

Book 19: Currents - pastlife poems, 2016

Book 20: The Fault of Sages, 2017

Book 21: Sight at Zero - selected poems (1988 to 2017), 2017

Book 22. The Poetry of Allison Grayhurst - completed works from 1988 to 2017 (Volume 1 of 5), 2017

Book 23. The Poetry of Allison Grayhurst - completed works from 1988 to 2017 (Volume 2 of 5), 2017

Book 24. The Poetry of Allison Grayhurst - completed works from 1988 to 2017 (Volume 3 of 5), 2017

Book 25. The Poetry of Allison Grayhurst - completed works from 1988 to 2017 (Volume 4 of 5), 2017

Book 26. The Poetry of Allison Grayhurst - completed works from 1988 to 2017 (Volume 5 of 5), 2017

Book 27. The Poetry of Allison Grayhurst - Collections from 1988 to 2017 (Volume 6), 2017

Book 28: The Sculptures of Allison Grayhurst, 2018

What Others Say About The Poetry Of Allison Grayhurst:

"Allison Grayhurst's poetry combines the depth and dark intensity of Sylvia Plath, the layered complex imagery of Dylan Thomas and the philosophical insights of Soren Kierkegaard, taking the reader on a fearless journey through the human condition, delving with honesty into death, grief, loss, faith, commitment, motherhood, and erotic love. Grayhurst intertwines a potent spirituality throughout her work so that each poem is not simply a statement or observation, but a revelation that demands the reader's personal involvement. Grayhurst's poetic genius is profound and evident. Her voice is uniquely authentic, undeniable in its dignified vulnerability as it is in its significance," Kyp Harness, singer/songwriter, author.

"Allison Grayhurst is the Queen of Catharsis. Allison Grayhurst's poems are like cathedrals witnessing and articulating in unflinching graphic detail the gritty angst and grief of life, while taking it to rare clarity, calm and comfort in an otherwise confusing world of deception, mediocrity and degradation. Allison Grayhurst takes the sludge of life, and with fearless sharpness of eye and heart she spins it free of maggots with the depth of honour and passion. Allison Grayhurst's work is haunting, majestic and cleansing, often leaving one breathless in the wake of its intelligence, hope, faith and love amidst the muck of life. Many of Allison Grayhurst's poems are simply masterpieces booming with thunderous insight begging to be in Bartlett's Quotations, lines such as "I drink necessity's authority." Nothing is wishy-washy in the realm of Allison Grayhurst. Allison Grayhurst's work is sustaining, enriching, and deepening for the soul to read... a light of sanity in the world. As a poet, Allison Grayhurst is a lighthouse of intelligent honour... indeed, intelligence rips through her work like white water," Taylor Jane Green BA, RIHR, CHT, Registered Spiritual Psychotherapist, and author of Swan Wheeler: A North American Mythology and The Rise of Eros

"A river is in Allison Grayhurst's poems. Sometimes it rages over boulders hidden beneath rapids. Sometimes it is as calm and placid as a summer day reflecting skies so blue they are as unusual as a Stellar Jay's wings. Sometimes it is as unpredictable as the rhythm of clouds gathering before a storm. Made up of words, emotions, thoughts, thoughts crystallized into ideas, this river, like most rivers, is unforgettable. One poem cascades after another into a flood of poetry. As in the poetry of Wallace Stevens, Allison Grayhurst's work can be dense with meanings hidden beneath the flowing surface of words. The emotions in her poems sear with the power of Sylvia Plath. One layer reflects light over another layer of thought and emotion that leads to yet another layer. This is as serious a poet as is writing poetry today. For those adventurous enough to venture into a river wild, deep, calm, beautiful, shadowed, light, filled with moods and emotions of both an inner and the earth's landscape, then this is a journey worth taking. It leads to experiences that have the texture and substance of life," Thomas Davis, poet, educator, scholar, playwright, and novelist.

"When I read Allison Grayhurst's poetry, I am compelled by the intensity and strength of her spirituality. Her personal experience of God drives her poetry. With honesty and vulnerability, she fleshes out the profound mystery of knowing at once both the beauty and terror of God's love, both freedom and obedience, deep joy and sorrow, both being deeply rooted in but also apart from the world, and lastly, both life and death. Her poems undulate through these paradoxes with much feeling and often leave me breathless, shaken. Allison Grayhurst's poems are both beautiful and difficult to behold," Anna Mark, poet and teacher.

"Allison's poetic prose is insightful, enwrapping, illuminating and brutally truthful. It probes the nature of the human spirit, relationships, spirituality and God. It is sung as the clearest song is sung within a cathedral by choir. It is whispered as faintly as a heartbroken goodbye. It is alive with the life of a thousand birds in flight within the first glint of morning sun. It is as solemn as the sad-sung ballad of a noble death. Read at your peril. You will never look at this world in quite the same way again. Your eye will instinctively search the sky for eagles and scan the dark earth for the slightest movement of smallest ant, your heart will reach for tall mountains, bathe in the most intimate of passions and in the grain and grit of our earth. Such is Allison Grayhurst. Such is her poetry. THE RIVER IS BLIND is a must-read." - Eric M. Vogt, Poet and Author

From the back cover of "Somewhere Falling":

"Somewhere Falling has a richness of imagery and an intensity of emotion rare in contemporary poetry. Drawn in sharp outlines of light and darkness, and rich shades of colour, with a deep sense of loss and longing and the possibility of salvation, this is an unusual book by a gifted young poet. Grayhurst's voice is one to which we should continue to pay attention." -- Maggie Helwig, author of Apocalypse Jazz and Eating Glass.

"Responsibility and passion don't often go together, especially in the work of a young poet. Allison Grayhurst combines them in audacious ways. Somewhere Falling is a grave, yet sensuous book." - Mark Abley, author of Glasburyon and Blue Sand, Blue Moon.

"Biting into the clouds and bones of desire and devotion, love and grief, Allison Grayhurst basks the reader, with breathtaking eloquence, in an elixir of words. Like lace, the elegance is revealed by what isn't said. This is stunning poetry." - Angela Hryniuk, author of no visual scars.