On my first visit, looking from the Market,I imagined the body of Robert Ketthanging from its walls,a warning to the rebelswho stood up to wealthy landowners,against unfair land enclosures. I wandered up a mound dug by slaves,to an edifice built over Saxon graves,a symbol of Norman subjugation,to counter revolt and rebellion. Throughout history they rose […]
Category: Poems about Norfolk
Music of the Moorings
A sunny afternoon spent by themoorings watching boats; a smelldrifts off the water ofsun cream, lazy days and freedom,when days are long and warm,and barbecues singe gentle winds.Holidaymakers escape the limits ofsweltering city life in summer;I watch them navigate the dyke as I lingernear a patch of water lilies inthe shade of trees. I feel […]
It’s Wednesday
and this is what I know:married thirty-one years,living in a place wherebeauty is everywhere,yesterday we drovefor just over an hourpast the salt marsheson the North Norfolk coast. In an ice-blue skylapwings flash wings;skeins of geese fly overheadand a variety of ducks glideacross the briny water below. It’s a landscape of shiveringbird calls, marsh birds pouringover […]
Fye Bridge
In Norwich, where an ancient wooden bridge once stood, another took its place, but it was never rid of its use in the witch trials, and now it is a haunted space. Where Fye bridge crosses the river is a handsome part of the city; the stories it holds would make you shiver from its […]
Village
This is a quiet village in a flat landscape,where boat sails criss-cross fieldspast old churches and windmills. There are ancient woods and trees:rowan, oak and beech,walks along a winding lane or windy beach. Just down the road horses graze and on the riverducks and swans return each year:I’m not the only one who loves it […]
Vs, Ws and Xs
On my first much-needed walkin a few weeks, a heron, statue-still,sat guard by the bridge – untilI took out my phone for a shot, and it slow-winged up and overthe dyke. Down the muddy lanethere were deep red berries,and overhead the clamour of geese flying in v, w and xformations, criss-crossing the sky.They left me […]
The Old Vicarage Gardens
At the tipping point of summer,leaves have not yet turnedand, at the Old Vicarage Gardens,a riot of dahlias continues to burn,their vivid colours and spiky bloomsare not likely to fade too soon,unlike the fading dog day heat. Grass and bark paths yield to our feeton a quiet walk between trees and flowers,disturbed only by the […]
A Norfolk July
In Norfolk, we’re surrounded by water: the sea, the Broads, and rain’s no stranger. Overnight downpours drench field and garden, fill water butts, gutters, and rain- drops sparkle on the plants on my patio, where green dill fronds unfurl and the lavender is purple. Kim M. Russell, 24th July 2023 It’s Quadrille Monday at the […]
Breath of the Norfolk Broads
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 […]
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 […]
writing in north norfolk 