They cling to flat horizons, bent and wizenedby the north wind’s blast, sculpted intogiants, witches, hobgoblins and dragons. Here and there they come together,in woods, copses and swathes of ancient forest,huddling against the weather. Once they commanded the landscape,a place to hide, to sleep, to love:broad-leaved warriors that escaped Bronze Age deforestation, Norfolk trees—if they […]
Category: Poems about Norfolk
Down by the Moorings at the End of the Garden
I rise with the sun this morning.Our cat is waiting at the back door. I pull on my wellington boots,unlock the door and let her out, follow her across dew-soaked grass,grown long, studded with forget-me-nots, down to the back gate. She slipsthough its slats while I stand and admire boats bobbing ungainly on wind-kissed water,ghosts […]
Impossible Rainbows
The salt marsh fadesbeneath sky tinged with grey and a violet obsession. Wielding its thunder-axe,the storm’s hooves skid and the sky cracks fusing the horizon. Dandelions spatterverges, thirsting for some pitter-patter while I insist I’m right as rain. I’m ready to bravea nor’easter, given the promise of a stormy day and rainbows impossible to follow to their ends. Kim […]
March Morning in North Norfolk
Norfolk skies,broad and grey,weave anthracite clouds. A boat glides by,steel river wash,intrepid in its wake. The day drawsits morning breath,draws cackling roosting crows, draws mistacross greening fields,landscape’s waking womb. Kim M. Russell, 10th March 2026 This Tuesday, Dora is our host for Tuesday Poetics at the dVerse Poets Pub, and we are embodying the landscape. […]
Likened to Icy Auroras
In the wild configurationof a Norfolk night,where weathersmells like peat and moss, we are at peace— Until we are wokenby snow-light through blinds,dazzling our eyes,everything needled with ice as if speckled with stars. So we venture outto stare at the whiteness—instead we are metwith watermelon sky turning colours like a kaleidoscope. In that momentwe are […]
So This Is Dilham
There are gulls between the goalson the village football pitch,tugging at lingering wisps of mist,their white wings stark against dirty green. They ignore the jackdaws, yinto their yang, pick at the last daisies,the ones that haven’t been squashedin mud, hoping for a tasty snack. No fish and chips here, too farfrom the coast, no shops […]
Norfolk Paddle Songs
My paddle sings a song of gnarly bankside roots,of snagging water lilies and bulrushesof gurgling, drips and splashes. My paddle sings a song of stately swans,of graceful grebes and other waterfowl,of agile otters and shy water voles. My paddle sings a song of riverside pubs,of cottages, farms and windmills,of flat landscapes and a dearth of […]
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 […]
Us
It was the beginning of us,that weather-buffeted cottageby the North Sea, haunted bysaline spectres and seabirds. Out-of-season virgin beaches wereravaged by wind, foot and paw prints.Seal-stalkers button-eyed us wearilyfrom the waves; they seemed to know about teeth-chattering winters spentwatching the carpet rise and watertrickle down rain-blasted walls. Yetit was cockle-warming: the damp, smoky crackles […]
April Blossoms
There are few blossoms in the city yet,save a misty cerise-tinged sunset;one can only imagine a hazeof cherry flowers pinking up the sky- line and defining sooty silhouettes. Who am I to criticise a city dwellerwho climbs high enough in the April skyto search far and wide for the distant aromaof trees blooming in the […]
writing in north norfolk 