Poetry from Allison Grayhurst, set to music by Diane Barbarash

Musical collaboration between poet Allison Grayhurst, whom we’ve published several times in Synch Chaos, and musician Diane Barbarash.

Available for a listen here.

Animal Sanctuary

he turns his hawk head to view

the shells of turtles streaking

the still-shroud of water in tanks

as blue as sky

he lifts a leg and talons tensed

pivots to defend

against an enclosing shadow

with whitish eyes and an impossible urge to fly

he hops along his man-made perch

toward the cages where squirrels leap from metal to wood

scattering like leaves in unpredictable flurry

spring, he will never experience again

nor know the scent of a pent-up life

released like sunflowers blooming or the feel of the moon

colder but more comforting

than being touched

with whitish eyes and an impossible urge to fly

he hops along his man-made perch

toward the cages where squirrels leap from metal to wood

scattering like leaves in unpredictable flurry

bridge

he is without time or tribe

and like fire

he haunts

by just

being

with whitish eyes and an impossible urge to fly

he hops along his man-made perch

toward the cages where squirrels leap from metal to wood

scattering like leaves in unpredictable flurry

scattering like leaves

Now I Am Two

it is this way, togetherness

a covenant, with tenderness

and speaking thoughts

only glimpsed

the snow falls, like rain

as the afternoon moves

without time

our hands, pressed as one

neither of us

will ever be

alone again

without the other

one we love

we’ll never be alone again

it is always miraculous

unexpected awakening

vanishing then re-emerging

and with these things of harmony

the bond we fused is unbreakable

I was one, now I am two

neither of us

will ever be

alone again

without the other

one we love

we’ll never be alone again

Bridge

the children gathered, in our arms

add to our liberation

laughing at things only ours

it is what we were praying for

what years have not diluted

the summoning of all our parts

Chorus (x2)

River

I will run my breath, across your eyelids

go to you, trace the edges

of your hands and find

infinity, inside your torment

I will drift into you, like the wind

and you will not mind my lips

like a shadow, on your skin

darkening but leaving no weight

I will run to you

I will cup your flesh, and stretch you through

this intimacy, because

I own you as you, own me

and it’s not a bad thing or anything to fear

I will run to you

I will heal the red in the whites of your eyes

You will be the mania that I climb through

I will run to you

these days of standing close

depend on the ease

of our mutual exposure

I will speak, and you’ll step

into my voice

like stepping into a river

I will run to you (x8)

The collaboration for the album River began on New Year’s Eve 2016, when I was immersed in a compilation of poems by award winning writer Allison Grayhurst, Trial and Witness – Selected Poems by Allison Grayhurst. Here, I should mention that Allison and I had been extremely close friends years ago in Toronto, which is my old hometown. When I moved 3000 miles west to Vancouver, we lost touch but reconnected late in 2016 and joyously it was like we’d never skipped a beat. By then she had published several books and I had recorded 3 albums. The reunion with Allison gave me back a piece of myself, that part was immediately evident.

And so it followed that I was emerged in Allison’s poetry on that auspicious New Year’s Eve. I don’t even know what possessed me, but I remember impulsively picking up my guitar, scanning the poem I had just read and allowing a verse to flow like magic from a few of the lines. It came out really easily, and musically it sounded like “something”. So I went to another poem and had a similar experience. The following day I contacted Allison and proposed writing an album based on her writing, and she basically said go for it. I told her I would change anything she wasn’t comfortable with, because I would be altering the main structure of her poems and possibly adding lyrics at times as the song needed. Our working relationship as it turns out was very respectful and I was able to write freely with full support from Allison. As we exchanged ideas long distance the test of creative trust and integrity was passed, and as the year progressed we proved well in sync artistically and thus, fell deeply in love with this project.

When this album began I had actually just come out of a three-year creative block. Songs, like other forms of art, cannot be forced by the mind. They have to come from the heart and you have to give yourself over to them as they flow out. This is how I’ve always known I am in the presence of true love, the unexplainable lyrical and musical combination that gives birth to what becomes a song. Composing with Allison’s poetry became this kind of pure-heart experience. I am changed and definitely hope that there is more to come.

Diane’s Bio

Diane Barbarash was writing songs long before learning how to play guitar at thirteen. She was an active singer-songwriter in Toronto’s folk club circuit before moving to Vancouver where she perused her love of recording. She has released three albums prior to River, however she considers River her true debut.
River – songs from the poetry of Allison Grayhurst was released on October 5, 2017. It was composed during January-July 2017, recorded in 4 days in August and then mixed and mastered that same month. River is available now on iTunes, Amazon, Bandcamp, and CD Baby.

Allison’s Bio

Allison Grayhurst is a member of the League of Canadian Poets. Three of her poems were nominated for “Best of the Net” in 2015, and one eight-part story-poem was nominated for “Best of the Net” in 2017. She has over 1125 poems published in more than 450 international journals and anthologies. Her book Somewhere Falling was published by Beach Holme Publishers, a Porcepic Book, in Vancouver in 1995. Since then she has published sixteen 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 December 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 in 2016 by Creative Talents Unleashed (CTU Publishing Group). She is a vegan. She lives in Toronto with her family. She also sculpts, working with clay; www.allisongrayhurst.com

SYNCHRONIZED CHAOS

Interdisciplinary journal of art, music, culture, science & literature.

Poetry from Allison Grayhurst, set to music by Diane Barbarash