The mirror in the garden pond is cracked with rushes, irises, rotting leaves and watercress; a single poppy lingers on, pale petals promise oblivion. In the mirror of the garden spade, a toad with its glittering topaz gaze, legs akimbo and puffed up body dangles from the shiny blade, toxin flooding warty membrane. Mirror, mirror […]
Month: November 2017
Winter Moon
the moon’s a balloon it fills a clear icy sky bursting stars and snow Kim M. Russell, 2017 My response to Carpe Diem #1316 Moon of My Delight For the last episode about The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam, Chèvrefeuille has chosen a quatrain which he calls ‘Moon of My Delight’: Ah, Moon of my Delight […]
Contentment
warm inside our hearts contentment can’t be frozen spring soon comes around Kim M. Russell, 2017 My response to Carpe Diem #1315 Scheme of Things Today’s prompt is Quatrain 88 from The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam: Ah Love ! could thou and I with Fate conspire To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire, Would […]
No Cinderella
I don’t need to change into a princess or a pumpkin, a glass slipper or a mouse. Poetry does that with its ins and outs of words and rhymes, the ups and downs of stanzas and lines. Kim M. Russell, 2017 My response to dVerse Poets Pub Tuesday Poetics: Change Paul is our host today […]
Mother Holle
Loaves steam, apple scent curls and twists from the cauldron; hot breathy spells rise and pop with piquant punctuation in Mother Holle’s kitchen. Her sinister hand conjures incantations, her dexter spins and weaves them needle prick by needle prick into something lyrical and more poetic. She no longer has the youth and charms to lure […]
Night Music
bubbling memory breaks night’s deafening silence a nightingale’s song Kim M. Russell, 2017 My response to Carpe Diem #1314 The Nightingale After being away due to illness, I’ve come back to the particularly lovely quatrain 72 from The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam: Alas, that Spring should vanish with the Rose! That Youth’s sweet-scented Manuscript should […]
Best Laid
These days I don’t lay my pen down while I think – it’s a computer mouse, which has reminded me of Robert Burns, his wee timorous Mousie and best laid plans. I have the messiest desk and study, with piles of correspondence, letters, poems to submit and paper to recycle, as well as my boxes […]
Comfort
I shiver in the empty white field, watch as snowflakes melt on my lashes, nibble frozen stalks of grass, icy glass against my chattering teeth. They fall heavy in my hollow gut. The sun’s long up, milky drops through bulky clouds. Crows throw stark shadows in lacy branches that move with the hours until the […]
Seabirds
Sullen and slate-grey, the sky lights up slowly, in its own good time, rinsed with lemon luminescence, a bleached handkerchief embroidered with distant gulls. Smaller seabirds, snatched by the polar wind, flutter like leaves, tumbling acrobats that land and curtsey on salt encrusted rocks. Kim M. Russell, 2017 My response to dVerse Poets Pub Quadrille: […]
Last Leaves, Last Light
deep silence the shrill of cicadas seeps into rocks Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694) even the last leaves to fall touch the earth without a sound Kim M. Russell oppressive greyness the glow of […]
writing in north norfolk 