Dawn chorus is a wall of sound, wildest festival of the year; spring flowers and blossoms abound, and the summer will soon be here. When birdsong’s almost at its peak, dawn chorus is a wall of sound, blackbirds open their golden beaks to take part in the joyful round. Maytime magic is all around; in […]
Mary Alice Muted
She is muted, not just in colour.He has painted her in hues of dolour.and taken away her voice.I wonder, had it been her choice to find herself so portrayedin shades of violet, green and greyto the modern art world’s eyes,to be so closely scrutinised, or did she trust the artist’s view.Lacking softer tones of blue,I […]
After School at Grandmother’s House
My mother worked and wasn’t home until bedtime. It was agreed that my younger sister and I would be collected by my grandmother when we returned to school in September and we would have our tea with her. I remember us holding her hands as we walked from the school to cross the main road […]
Deirdre’s Accordian – a poem on Visual Verse
I am delighted that Visual Verse chose to include my poem on page 30 of the latest issue, Volume 10 Chapter 7. The image is not a modern or surreal one, as they often are, but a classical painting by John Everett Millais. It really caught my imagination and that of the other contributors. All the pieces, […]
Writing Freedom’s Wings
The pen was the key to the poet’s voice; the guards took it, and with it the poet’s choice. But they could not take unspoken words, could not stop images forming into nouns and verbs, which became feathers and then wings. Justice knows why the caged poet sings. Kim M. Russell, 16th May 2023 Image […]
Bathroom
I see her through the steam settling on tiles and glass, obscuring their usual gleam; she has no definition, no face until I wipe the surface clear. Her face is a mirror – I take a breath – understand that we share this face beyond death. Kim M. Russell, 15th May 2023 Image by Ria […]
Curators of the Night
Curators of the Night They are busy on the night shift,dusting off star drift,polishing up the moon in all its forms.(It’s always being tarnished by space storms.) The library’s astronomerscans the sky for astral bodies, gathersmoons, and stars that fall to Earth,and shelves them until their monthly rebirth. They lend them out too,to people like […]
Dream a Little Dream
From the hill, the small town seemed to be composed of parallel streets lined with neat little houses and shops with awnings striped in primary colours. On descending the road that led down the hill and into the village, she noticed that the colours were deliberate: red for the butcher; green for the greengrocer; yellow […]
Memory’s Drift
Its leafy dome makes me think of you, the way you leaned against the willow tree, gazed through branches at a patch of blue – I knew I’d love you endlessly. In darkest shadows I begin to drift, aching for that happy summertime; now memory with ageing starts to shift, and poetry no longer rhymes. […]
Sett for Life
Don’t badger me about my burrow, it keeps me safe from rain and cold, from dangerous predators, humans too; my ancestral home is centuries old. My forebears’ powerful claws dug deep a sturdy network of chambers and tunnels, a realm with a semi-circular keep beneath the hills and wooded dingles, where I gather grass and […]
writing in north norfolk 