I was standing by water, dreaming of the summer, when she appeared, a wherryman’s daughter on a black-sailed trader among the whispering reeds. A grebe on her shoulder, a spring breeze in her hair, she brought it with her on the breath of the Broads: the tinkle of laughter, swans swimming in sunshine, and the […]
Category: Poems about Norfolk
The Wherryman’s Return
Once I was lost in Norfolk mist that dims the view of wherrymen, grips you like a watery fist and pulls you further to the fen. I left her at the cottage door, waving with her handkerchief; it was the very last time she saw me, my darling widowed wife. But I still wander past […]
I live by a river
The river wraps around trees,some fallen, some weeping,plays over branches,and twigs, scattering light. Yesterday was full of birdsswooping, diving, chattering,among young leaves;a robin blustered in the cherry, parrying the two-note callof a pheasant strutting amongdaffodils, eager for a matein these early days of rebirth. Today, unseasonal snowflakes meltas soon as they touch the silent earth. […]
A North Norfolk Midwinter
Broad, grey Norfolk skies. Weave clouds.Anthracite grey. A boat,steel river wash forms intrepid in its wake,discouraging ice. Draws wintry breath,draws roosting crows, draws hoarfrost across bare fields,landscape’s fallow womb. Kim M. Russell, 5th April 2021 My response to NaPoWriMo Day Five It’s Monday and it’s snowing here, not heavily, it’s Easter snow. The prompt for […]
North Norfolk Trees
They cling to flat horizonsonly to be bent and wizened by the north wind’s blastthat steams in from the coast. It sculpts them into humps and twiststhat loom from drifting sea mists as giants, witches and hobgoblins,wild animals and dragons. Here and there they come together,huddling against the weather, hedgerows, small woods, copsesand swathes of […]
Holme
It sounds like home. It’s a morning walk on a Norfolk beach,wind strewing salty seaweedlike hair on a northerly breeze. The flatness hid the traces. It was a sea henge with an upturned oak stumpat the centre of a Bronze Age ring of trunks:fifty-five split and ancient hearts of oak. And hearts were split. Some […]
Castle on the Knoll
My Norman walls have overseen the bustling market for centuries. I’ve witnessed war and rebellion, wealth and famine, the flourishing of Norwich as a fine city. I harbour ancient treasures, chronicle the lives and times of citizens: some were imprisoned in my dungeons, while others hung from my walls for all to see. Ghosts linger […]
Eggs and Other Things in Your Basket
From the steps at city hall, the market square resembles a tin of sweet wrappers, brightly striped in sunshine and glistening in rain. A walk between the stalls makes me sea-sick: I roll down the lurching incline, a sometime sailor, bantering with Norwich traders over fresh fruit, fish and flowers; exotic spices, eggs and cheese; […]
Cobbles Lanes and Courtyards
There is comfort to be found in cobbles, lanes and courtyards oozing with medieval mystery. This fine city slips on like a pair of favourite shoes laced up with familiarity. Sunlight flickers off the Wensum as it wends its way past churches, one for every week, and pubs, one for every day of the year, […]
Plight of the Sand Martins
This is a true story of the sand martins’ plight on their annual return to the Norfolk coast to nest and lay eggs after a strenuous flight. Is human comfort more valuable than the right of birds endangered by nets and posts? This is a true story of the sand martins’ plight. Erosion threatens a […]
writing in north norfolk 