Crows in the boughs remind her of her distant home, the man she left behind. Perhaps he listens to the patter of the rain, the cawing of the roosting birds, and thinks of her. So alone, she lies down on her bed, her crow black eyes like stones. Kim M. Russell, 20th April 2021 Image […]
Category: Poems Inspired by Artists, Music and Other Writers
Traces of an Elephant’s Tears (Empathy)
I feel the tears, although there is only a trace now. Just like the baby elephant, alone in the zoo, abandoned with only a memory of the mother it will never forget. And what about the mother’s tears? The tears of the herd? It is not absurd that my maternal instinct rears in despair at […]
Fan Mail
Letter to Klimt (from a devoted fan) Dear Gustav,This is my final letter to you.So unconventional,so talented, and allyou send me are postcards.I explored your imagery,learned your language,but I can never comprehendthe erotic depths of your mind,where Eumenides watch a condemnedman’s punishment in a sea monster’s embrace. Postcard from Klimt (unsigned) I write not in […]
I stick these pages together with blue
The blue-tack tucked in the side of the drawer reminds me of days when I listened to your voice non-stop. My younger self wrote your lyrics with a blue ink italic calligraphy pen on index cards; I even copied artwork from album sleeves, shaded in with rainbow-coloured pencils. Leaves unfurled and fell with your smoky […]
Judith’s To Do List
The maid, Abra, must be ready and willing.Wear finest and most revealing garment.Ensure that everyone in the camp is sleepingbefore entering General Holofernes’ tent.Instruct Abra to wait in the gloom for a sign.Extinguish all but one of the candles, and pourHolofernes a jeroboam of wine.Keep within reach his sharpened sword.When he slumps into sleep, signal […]
Alice
I lie beneath this rusted cross of curlicues,surrounded by these muted churchyard hues,alone among lichen-covered stones,in the peaceful housing of my crumbled bones. You’re imagining my life, how bright my smilefor parents, siblings, husband, perhaps a child;you know my my name, the date when I was born –and died – but no idea of those […]
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 […]
In the Belly of Pandemic Spring
Last year,in the belly of pandemic spring,I was shut in. Walls warped,windows were eyes,and the chair in the corner stayed empty. All the words I wrote poured off the page;I had to scoop them up and paste them back on,like poison pen letters to myself. This year, I’m sitting in the empty chair,planning what I’ll […]
The Road to Norfolk
Where would we beif I hadn’t driven the road to Norfolk,to our little cottage by the sea? You might not have left,gone to live with your father,leaving me bereft. You might not have takenyour own long road of experience,acquired a faithful canine. You might not have metthe man who became your partner,friend, lover, father to […]
At the end of the party…
when it all slows down, music, body, brain, you feel like you’ve been drinking acid rain. Lights explode into colours and shadows are palpable; in the dark corners of a sofa, some are even huggable. Darkness starts to fade, daylight begins to hover through gaps in the morning and a mother of a hangover and […]
writing in north norfolk 