Following the Brush

I sweep the floor with an old broom, it still does the job, collects crumbs and dust, pushes the pile of detritus from one place
to another, and with it
                  my thoughts
                                 a poem forming
like the pile of dust,
sometimes caught up in the brush
                  and then escaping.

Our cat Luna pokes her head round the door; she’s scared of the hoover but happy to follow the broom for a while,
                  chasing 
                         skidding
                                 spreading the dust.
She ignores the pheasant 
                    crowing
                            cackling 
                                     clucking 

to his harem in the garden; he’s too big and intimidating to chase, so Luna wanders into the living room and jumps onto the sofa for a nap.

I’m left to follow 
the broom, collect the dust, thoughts,
write a new poem.

Kim M. Russell, 16th April 2026

This Thursday, Merril is our host at the dVerse Poets Pub, where we are meeting the bar, where we work on poetry forms and skills, ad she has introduced us to a form called the zuihitsu, often translated as ‘following the brush’.

She says that it isn’t a new form, but a Japanese hybrid form that can be traced back to Sei Shōnagon’s 10th-century text The Pillow Book, and it incorporates nonfiction, musings and confessions, poetry, and miscellany.

Merril has shared the beginning of one by Jenny Xie, as well as a link to further examples of zuihitsu and an interview with poet Kimiko Hahn discussing the form.

She asks us to have fun with this one and suggests starting with a line from a poem, the news, a song, or thinking about a walk we’ve taken, and going from there, or even begin it as an ekphrastic, and then write paragraphs and fragments.