I struggled with a poem for the April issue of Visual Verse, mainly due to my impaired eyesight after two cataract operations. I’m currently wearing reading glasses borrowed from my husband, which are the wrong prescription but do make a bit of a difference. The image in the May issue, Volume 9 Chapter 8, is […]
Category: Poems Inspired by Artists, Music and Other Writers
Persistence of Vision (a cento)
The future was a beautiful place, once. I held you that June morning when you opened your eyes; we were seeing one another after seasons of darkness. Like some watcher of the skies. I consider how my light is spent, look into my glass and view my wasting skin; vision may be just a part […]
Reflection
The image in the March issue of Visual Verse, Volume 9 Chapter 6, is a stunning photograph by Vony Razom, which has inspired amazing writing, with only one hour to produce 50-500 ekphrastic words. I recommend reading everything, starting at page 1. My poem is on page 83 and, if you want to read it first, you […]
William
His young hands were slender, quick and strong, creating worlds in drama and in song, busy and stained with ink; the scratching of the pen spurred him to think. But hands that once were softened by caress, eager to hold and often poised to bless, became stiff and talon-like with age, faltering fingers fought to […]
Mothers
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 […]
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 […]
writing in north norfolk 