A Sudden Sonnet

On a dark December morning,
invisible in sea mist,
Norfolk beet fields whisper wind.

Silent poplars, stripped of their leafy dress,
oppressed by the closeness
of gunmetal clouds, flank the lane.

Tarmac glistens with overnight rain,
the sky threatens to split again
and has leached all colour.

Suddenly, in the hedgerow, I see
the silhouette of a crab apple tree
spill tiny golden fruit,

and smell the tang of sweet rot,
a reminder of autumn’s glut.

Kim M. Russell, 6th December 2018

Image result for crab apples images on a misty morning
Image found on Fiveprime

My response to Poets United Midweek Motif: Surprise!

This week Susan quotes Heraclitus: “If you do not expect the unexpected, you will not find it . . . .” and asks us to write new poems with surprise as a recurring motif. She says the poem itself need not surprise, but she wouldn’t mind being woken up a little through a pleasant surprise!

She has given us a fantastic image and some wonderful examples of poems by Emily Dickinson, Dorothy Parker and Naomi Shihab Nye.

15 thoughts on “A Sudden Sonnet”

  2. You had me at the title! ❤ Such a fantastic poem from the beginning to the close 😊 especially like; “silhouette of a crab apple tree spill tiny golden fruit” and “a reminder of autumn’s glut.” ❤

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  4. How dark it had to get for the beauty to spring forth! I entered each image so deeply that really felt a metallic taste in gray air. And then the rot smell pulled me around to see the beauty. A Sudden Sonnet, indeed! Glorious! And picture perfect. Of all the images/metaphors, however, this was the most amazing to me:
    “Silent poplars, stripped of their leafy dress,
    oppressed by the closeness
    of gunmetal clouds, flank the lane.”
    How dared that apple tree not fall in line! We have to dare!
    Sharing to save this perfect poem.

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