Willow was a garden witch who grew plants and healed the sick. She was lithe as a willow and, likewise, responded to the seasons: she spent most of winter under a cosy eiderdown, like a plant beneath snow; in spring, she blossomed; in summer, she watered; and in autumn she gathered. Villagers grew old and […]
Month: January 2024
The lightest note breaks
with lips of frozen berries,those first kisses beneath wood smoke and stars.I didn’t realise we had so much in common:the pen was the key.It’s a quarter past three on a Sunday morning,I am an unripe field with scarlet seeping,everything’s turning,deceived by a cancerous two-faced moonat the tipping point of summer.Once it was the colour of […]
Robin Prints Across the Page
They say that a robin is a sign,a visit from a loved onefrom the other side. Chill January breathhaunts me on the anniversaryof my mother’s death, her favourite bird follows meround the garden,cocks its head and eyes me, leaves invisible spoorsacross a blank page,a love letter of sorts carving a pain in my heart,lingering grief […]
A Clattering of Sorrows
It began as a muffled splash in a half-flooded field,became chyak-chyak and chattering echoesin the January vacuum,then exploded into black ink,splattering Rohrschach blots against the winter-grey sky:a clattering of sorrows.I counted thirteen jackdaws. By Kim M. Russell, 9th January 2024 Image by Alexei Zaitcev on Unsplash Written on the anniversary of my mother’s death, for […]
A Cormorant Flew Over the Lagoon
A cormorant flewover the lagoon,its primordial profile shoneback from waterblue-green as old copper. The cormorant landed silently on the shore, pecking at stonesand shells to crack,emitting a swallowed gruntas it took off again, backover the lagoon. Kim M. Russell, 8th January 2024 Image by Kristin Snippe on Unsplash It’s Monday, the day for writing quadrilles […]
Searching for Dark Matter
We could search the skywith the naked eyeor the ocean bedbut, when all is said, there’s enough darkmatter in a symphony,a masterpiece of art,prose or poetry. What the eye can’t seein heaven or below the sea,is hidden deepin our hearts and souls. Why do we feel the needto explore black holes(or alcohol in dark bars)for […]
We are not turnstones
It is on such days as thesethat I love to be beside the sea, watching rollers hit the shore,Nature’s power, nothing more than waves and wind, and turnstonestripping and skipping among fishbones, seaweed and shells, not unlike Sisyphus,pushing, shoving, turning – showing us not how our lives must be, but howtenacity can get us from […]
1st January 2024
It’s hard to believe that I woke up in 2024 this morning. Back in June 1949, Orwell’s book Nineteen Eighty-Four was published. 1984 has come and gone, I’m forty years older, so much has changed – and yet nothing has changed. The New Year’s Eve television programmes were much the same, and January is just […]
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