a country girl she had rosy cheeks the legacy of working beneath the open sky a twinkle in her eye she worked her spells growing market vegetables her two daughters running free climbing trees and skinning knees my girl has long since flown the nest and although I know I was not the best mother […]
Category: Poems Inspired by Artists, Music and Other Writers
Five Answers
i. It is the inhalation of the stalwart scent of decaying seaweed. ii. It is the thrill of rollercoaster cliffs from cuspate crag to hidden cove. iii. It is the underfoot crunch of cockleshells and the landslip of pebbles. iv. It is the salty sparkles v. and the guttural gulls swooping down and stealing chips. […]
A Saucer of Rain
Even as it falls from a rowan’s red berries,a ripening myth of the goddess Hebes,saucer ready to collect each dropof liquid life, I smile while I am sopped. Rain in my hair and on my neck, fallingin cool cascading rivulets, soakinga sweater you once lent me in yourgarden in an unexpected downpour. At supper time […]
The Gorgon’s Wedding
A hiss of hair uncoils from its lavish cageof silk and lace. She guards her stare,lowers turquoise lids, coated lashes brushpale powered skin. Friends and familygather, and then he’s standing therewith his best man, in matching corsagesand the darkest sunglasses. He turns to herwith a smile and love lights up her eyes.The murmur in the […]
Sounding Out Spring
Vowels ploughed into other: opened ground.The mildest February for twenty yearsIs mist bands over furrows, a deep no soundVulnerable to distant gargling tractors. Seamus Heaney In the north, the Ploughis ridden by the moonand frost continuesto clench the earth.Early morning walkingwakens words,enlivens lines from puffsof frozen breath,vowels ploughed into other: opened ground. Punctuated by stoneand root, […]
Artemisia
muscle, artery and veina slice of knifespray of blood and painand fall of head in handsnot mine but mineis vengeanceswapping bloodfor turpentine and oilthumbscrew torture of a sybil for a quick deatha last breath Kim M. Russell For NaPoWriMo Day 1 A story about the body Artemisia Gentileschi – Self portrait as the Allegory of […]
I Have Never Seen
The image in the March issue of Visual Verse, Volume 9 Chapter 4, is a vintage water colour by Susan Fenimore Cooper, which has inspired amazing writing from contributors, who had an hour to write 50-500 ekphrastic words. As ever, I recommend reading them all. Mine is on page 40, or, if you want to read […]
Schmetterlinge
This month, Visual Verse Volume 9 Chapter 4 gave us a bright image to cheer up the February gloom and, as usual, an hour to write 50-500 ekphrastic words inspired by a picture from Yasin Aribuga. The responses are fabulous and varied, and I recommend reading them all. Mine is on page 69, or, if you […]
Bath Time on New Year’s Eve
I love Dee Mulrooney‘s image for January’s Visual Verse Volume 9 Chapter 3, the starting point for ekphrastic writing of 50-500 words, for which we are given just one hour. I recommend reading all of the fabulous submissions, among which are familiar names. Mine is on page 73, or, if you want to read it […]
A poem in the current issue of Visual Verse
I am delighted that Visual Verse chose to include my poem on page 23 of the latest issue, Volume 9 Chapter 2. The image by Monica Silva is gorgeous, and all the pieces, prose and poetry, are fantastic. I recommend reading them all – or you can go directly to my poem ‘Horsehead‘.
writing in north norfolk 