sculpted by salty waves and sandthe driftwood was almost out of reachon the dunes above the beachthrown high in a stormit had once been part of a living treetorn from itsrootsand manufactured into something practicallike a boat or a tableby the time it reached the shoreit was unrecognisabletwisted by the artifice of the ocean into […]
Month: April 2025
Persistence
Echoing rain muffles the air.Distance seems to be lost to cloudsclosing in like damp sheep. Sheeting raindrips and drums, persistent and loud.At the window, I hug a mug of tea, distantly,listening to rain disappear into the distance. Kim M. Russell, 15th April 2025 On 15th April we are halfway through NaPoWriMo, with the online gallery […]
Scatterbrain
Mother calls me a scatterbrain and a daydreamer. She doesn’t understand how it feels to be me, wanting to fly on the wind with shimmering wings when I’m tethered to house and garden. I have so many chores, I don’t have time to read or finish writing the story Miss Thomas set for homework, about […]
On the Norfolk Broads
It’s never silent among the reedsand water lilies: inquisitive swans gliding in a boat’s wake hissand honk; there’s the bittern’s boom, an otter’s splash, and a breezewhistles through overhanging leaves. Passing boats rumble, blast their hornsby the bridge, the tide slaps at moored-up craft rockingand swaying in the moorings. But at sundown, everything is quietin […]
Optimism
1 An old man struggles along a mass of meltingtarmac, eerie shapes curling through the wall of heat.The town is otherwise deserted, everyonecowers behind shuttered windows, out of the heat. Under an umbrella the old man mumbles “Rain”. Behind their shutters, the whole town’s praying for rain. 2 By the roadside, every blade of grass […]
Devouring the Salmon
In all the seven long yearsof fishing for the salmonof knowledge, Finn,each time I tugged your line,you threw me back in,my silver-scaled tail shimmering,pert breasts pearled with water.You had no idea what you were missing. Years passed, I dived and swam,and eventually you snagged the salmon,gave it to your servant, Fionn,with strict instructions: cook it, […]
A Knot Around my Heart
I tighten fast inside your tourniquet,your words a knot around my heart, head exploding withunweathered and untethered light. How did you weave a poem so densein its changing tempo and major to minor shifts that make metighten fast inside your tourniquet? The alliterative tick of verbsand the gaping assonance of bouncing beat evokesunweathered and untethered […]
The Crone Can’t Spell Anymore
As a linguist and English teacher,and even before, as a learner,I never had problems spellingor remembering the meaningof…things. Entering my seventieth year,signs of ageing have appeared.I have begun to trip and stumble,words no longer tumblefrom my fingers. My handwriting’s scribble,as if a dyslexic spider resides in my pen.What I type isn’t what I see on […]
Rising Sun
In dawn’s quietudethe rising sun is a full stop on the horizon,a sizzle from red to orange, rudein its nakedness, all the while risinginto a still slumbering sky.Its light is concentrated in one place,a gold reflection like a cat’s eye,shimmering across the Earth’s face. A rusty vixen trots from behind a tree,the sunlight burnishing her […]
Dawn Parting
Pushing aside the fluidity of morning,you’re aware that outside day is dawning. You’re half asleep, dreams flutter on your lashes,unaware that a brand new day is dawning. Woken by a blackbird singing in the garden,your eyes open to the gentle day’s dawning. Stretching and yawning, you rise and dress,in preparation for another day’s dawning. How […]
writing in north norfolk 