I have always loved Will’s work from the moment I was introduced to his plays at school, and I remember falling in love with the sonnets as if it was only yesterday. The first poems I wrote as a teenager were sonnets and I still fall into the form when I least expect it. The […]
Category: Haibun
The End of a Storm
It was the morning after a terrifying storm, and we were woken by the telephone in the very early hours. My husband was called in to secure tubes and sheets on scaffold, and to help tidy up the very large gas site, where he has worked for over twenty-seven years. As his car was out […]
On first hearing The Planets by Gustav Holst
Of all the music created by Gustav Holst, Mars, the Bringer of War was the most terrifying to my young ears. The first time I heard it was in a music lesson at school, in which we had to work out the planet for each of the seven pieces, and I sensed darkness, drama and […]
Swells of Romance
When my husband moved to Norfolk, we walked our dog on the beach in all kinds of weather. The best time was after the summer season, when sea frets rolled in at short notice. But they didn’t bother us, walking hand in hand, throwing a ball or a pebble for the dog. They seemed to […]
Spring is already here…
In our garden we have green daffodil leaves, a small clump of snowdrops, buds on the cherry tree and honeysuckle tendrils. I’ve seen catkins dangling from branches and fuzzy pussy willow buds on my way to and from home. And we have cock pheasants strutting about noisily, facing up to each other. Mother Nature hums […]
And we begin again
The new year always makes me melancholy. The idea of having to start all over again is depressing, having been through it so many times in my life. I try to ignore it. On New Year’s Eve, I shut the curtains on fireworks and revelry, read a book and listen to music. The next day […]
Hawk Moth Caterpillar
When I was little, we lived with my grandparents and later, when my parents had a place of their own, I spent most of the summer holidays with them. If I wasn’t staying over, my nan would collect me in the morning and take me all the way back at the end of the day. […]
Labour Day
No wonder they call it labour – it’s hard work! The build-up was difficult enough, what with the move from Germany to Ireland via London, getting to know new people and surroundings, having to travel forty miles and back to the nearest hospital for check-ups, and then falling over a paving stone on my way […]
Hiroshima Shadow
Where a bicycle bell once tinkled, a memorial bell now tolls. When the clouds lifted and radioactive dust had settled, only shadows remained, ghosts burned into concrete, brick and stone, haunting the ash-covered landscape. What happened to the bike and its owner? Only the faded outline remained, and the hope that someone returned and rode […]
Summer Love
Since they were children, they’d ridden their bikes all summer, at first with stabilisers, and their bikes grew with them. This year, hair bleached from the sun and faces full of freckles, they realised their friendship had blossomed. ticking cycle wheels grasshoppers in the long grass strawberry kisses Kim M. Russell, 31st July 2019 My […]
writing in north norfolk 