Through lingering shadows of the past,times of struggle, revolution and dissent,they anchor themselves deep and fastto an increasingly unsettled present. Helplessly, they wait in public places,hotels, malls, and libraries where,helpfully, a librarian ghost traceshaiku as he escorts you to a chair. Eerily, they haunt crannies and nooks,entering museums and classrooms,easing themselves into pages of books,etching […]
Month: May 2025
It is the music of a people
(a golden shovel) Can you hear itfilling the air today? The melody isa memory of what we once were and thebeating of wings and rushing of air is musicwe feel in our hearts and souls. Words ofdespair are replaced with agrowing defiance: power to the people. Kim M. Russell, 28th May 2025 Wednesday’s come around […]
Solitude’s Promontory
A found poem uncovered in ‘The Art of Solitude: Buddhist Scholar and Teacher Stephen Batchelor on Contemplative Practice and Creativity’from Maria Popova’s The Marginalian Solitude is an art –we must learn to wait in acceptanceof a moment, of a piece of music, the polyphony of birds, the patter of rain. Alonebefore a sheet of paperor […]
Memento Mori
When I lived in Cologne in Germany, my best friends were Ellen, after whom my daughter is named, and Ulli, her partner. Ulli was a real character, Germanic looking, with very long blond hair and piercing blue eyes, and he had a wicked sense of humour. Ulli loved motor bikes, of which he had three, […]
Tree Moon Fox
Chilled to their inner ringsthey wait for spring, intimate winter trees, their unadorned birches, bare,skeletal white trunks shining, chilledfrom icy winds and frost-rilled. Under cover of night,there is white noise, rustle of leaves and distant hum of tyre on tarmac.Overhead the sky sparkles, incandescentwith a multitude of stars, distantand countless. Lying on her back, the […]
Puckered
The moon’s puckered upfor a strange kiss; her gut’s a quiet riot of butterflies,full of uncertain promise. Now the rumpus of spring is overand blossom-pink has turned to sad-brown, the moon and I are waitingfor an explosion of summer flowers. Kim M. Russell, 19th May 2025 Today, at the dVerse Poets Pub, I’m hosting the […]
Cupcake
Kim M. Russell, 15th May 2025 We’re meeting the bar with Björn at the dVerse Poets Pub today, and having a bit of fun with the shapes of poems on the page, something I have done before for a number of prompts. He tells us that concrete poetry “emerged from the major hubs of Concrete […]
Desamor
Do you have the aguante, the heart to fully giveto another human being? You sense the friolento, the long-distance future,stretching to the horizon, and become a nagual, a holder of secretsand longing for what is beyond. And the cenzontle, a wise woman,whispers encouragement in your ear: ‘Keep at it’, she says, ‘don’t give up.’But you […]
Kidnapped
I’ve been on this pirate ship, locked in a cabin, for ten days now, and there has been no sign of land, just the ocean as far as the eye can see. It’s a relief to spot a whale or a bird through the porthole, allies to a young girl trapped in a world of […]
Ruins in the Lagoon
You took me past the gondolason the Grand Canal, and acrossthe shimmering lagoon.I’d already fallenfor the sparkling glass of Muranoand the vibrancy of Burano,and then you gave me a little island,the gentle chirp of crickets,ancient ruins, Byzantine mosaicsin the Church of Santa Maria Assunta,and a restaurant among fragrant herbs,where we drank limoncello,soaking up the yellowglow […]
writing in north norfolk 