In March or April, between the trees,
ears like streamers in the breeze,
striding with their long legs
in enigmatic zig-zags,
sparring and boxing as they go,
ardent bucks and exhausted does.
They’re creatures of air, spirits of spring, you say,
shadowy bookends to the working day.
But in in a late summer light circus,
when shadows move in and out of focus,
from my hide of long grass I notice, unaware that I am there,
a large-eared hare
lolling in the meadow, nose twitching
whiskers trembling.
With lopsided gait it breaks into a run,
burnished fur gleaming in the sun.
Kim M. Russell, 20th April 2026
On the 20th day, we’re two thirds of the way through NaPoWriMo and April is going so fast! The optional prompt today starts by reading ‘Black Swan on Water’ by Carl Phillips, which consists of a single sentence, and the three-line stanzas mimic the ‘braids in water’ in the penultimate line. Furthermore, “the way the lines get longer and longer makes the poem as a whole look a bit like the widening wake that a swan leaves as it swims.”
Our challenge is to write a poem that uses an animal that shows up in myths and legends as a metaphor for some aspect of a contemporary person’s life, including one spoken phrase.
I’ve written several poems about hares before – I love to spot them when I’m out and about – so I took a few lines from a couple of them and created a new one.
writing in north norfolk 