I didn’t realise we had so much in common: birth and baptism (of couse) attempts at gardening books and reading (of course) juvenile writing and poetry (naturally) novel writing and a diary (love of) art and music imaginary world and depression teaching contentment at home stay in Brussels I lived in Cologne and Ireland) return […]
Category: Poems Inspired by Artists, Music and Other Writers
The Rooks of Rapture
The moon, like a cataract in the eye of night, casts her milky tract of light on a rookery of nests; their twiggy bulks seem to rest in the fingertips of branches. Below, the night’s chill breath petrifies fierce arum spears still clenched tight like fists where death has left its earthy taint among bits […]
Sonnet for Joni
One sunny April afternoon, I wanderedonto the edge of your atmosphereand devoured your records. I meanderedfrom old songs to new, from there to here, and found I could not choose. No favouritefor me. If I could mix all the melodies,all the lyrics, inhale your music, savour itlike spring air, I might forgive the parodies, the […]
[when i think of you]
after e.e. cummings i see your bike left haphazard on the edge of the forbidden cricket pitch fringed with golden hued birds-foot trefoil and clover, sky overhead cross-hatched with vapour trails, like the lines that sketch your face now; your face then was freckled, your breath sweet with bubble gum, lips stained orange with the […]
Bustle
The bustle in a mourning house on the morning of a loved one’s death takes away your breath; it’s the solemnest of industries and the sorriest of duties. You sweep up your heart and set your love apart, petrified with the certainty you’ll not use them until eternity. Kim M. Russell, 22nd April 2023 ‘Death […]
View from an Open Window
No curtains in this humble room,no fabric flapping on the breeze;a smudge of smoke in the distant gloomand a street devoid of birds and trees. The clouds are tinged with morning pink,a forecast of downpours yet to come;a thought to make my poor heart sinkand resolve to spend the day at home. This view of […]
A List of Things That Make a Perfect Day
Being woken by birdsong is a good start to a perfect day, with sunbeams breaching the slatted blind, falling on my face and tickling my nose, one of the cats patting my face with the velvet pads of a paw. A mug of steaming cranberry and raspberry tea is next, followed by fruit of the […]
Cave
find me a comfy cave, not a damp one, i think,nor a dark one, or one of cold stone.i reject your cynicism, despiseyour privilege, coldness, wealth, all useless in my eyes.i would not choose them. I long to see through holes in rock the distant sky,in my home of precious dryness, precious rockadorned with fresh […]
NaPoWriMo Day 3: Two Opposite Poems
The Light However I dismiss the lightas white concreteor the sun as a still-standing cube,now here’s something to be unconcerned about,absolutely. (Including humans…) Aircraft In the beginning,it was so much morethan the girl’s real biplanebeneath the distant desert,where you ran with me. And we stood upto ignore them departing,their black stumble proudwith achromatic darkness,the early […]
The Hollow Earth
The hollow earth callswith a hollow voice,hollow words thudas they fall into mudand winter-dead bracken. How strange that hollowsshould pierce the earthwith yellow burstsof daffodil, narcissus,celandine and crocus. Kim M. Russell, 1st April 2023 April 1 is here, accompanied by the first day of NaPoWriMo. I’m following the National Poetry Writing Month on Facebook and […]
writing in north norfolk 