Somewhere Falling

Louise E. Allin, a poet and short-story writer, is also an English instructor at Cambrian College.

Allison Grayhurst is a poet whose work is characterized by startling
imagery and uncompromising emotion and whose pieces have appeared in
prestigious literary magazines. Lights, darks, colors, and passions
intertwine throughout the pages of her work. Some of the more concrete
pieces, like “Turtle,” “Helen,” or “Anonymous,” provide
powerful insight: “The man on the corner curb, / knees bandaged &
bloodstained ... Rain / floods his open hands. / His mouth, catching
drops like diamonds.” Unfortunately, other poems seem to strum the
same chords under different names. Often their edges are beautiful but
blunt—personal pain, joy, love and hope, angst for angst’s sake. But
in what context, under what objective correlative? Self-conscious
alliteration, syntactical reversals, and punctuation that passes all
understanding recall the most inaccessible works of Ezra Pound or the
madness of Lear: “Poise. Cut off / the yes, yes / regrettable nod. /
Sink with strength into / the plumage proud.”