Earth tone structures throwa geometry of shadows,some angled, some ragged,in the punishing sun.Windows reflect light until it grabs the cityand shakes it by the scruff,plays pick-up sticks with chimney stacksand hide-and-seek with sky-lights.There is no shade, just brick and concrete,from skyscraper roof to urban street.Inside, cool air hiccups from air-conditioning;outside, exhaust belches from traffic,suffocating the […]
Category: Poems Inspired by Artists, Music and Other Writers
Bathers
When they emergefrom the water in their soggybathing costumes,their bodiesare like the landscape: dunes and waves, grit and pearls,sand and pebbles, seaside girlsin a rainbow of hues,reds, purples pinks and blues,shivering in the breeze. The lighthouse calls from granite rocks,a chalk stick tall and white,and they sing that songto a summer sky: “I wanna marry […]
It is the music of a people
(a golden shovel) Can you hear itfilling the air today? The melody isa memory of what we once were and thebeating of wings and rushing of air is musicwe feel in our hearts and souls. Words ofdespair are replaced with agrowing defiance: power to the people. Kim M. Russell, 28th May 2025 Wednesday’s come around […]
Close Up with O’Keefe
How does a curvilinear,abstract frill wrap around a heart of patina,fungus-like, an organic shell? Observe how the primitive waves crash,preserving the pulsing pigment of Persian-red gouache;how the artist’s blood seeped into the underpainting. Kim M. Russell, 6th May 2025 It’s Tuesday Poetics at the dVerse Poets Pub and our host is Melissa, with an ekphrastic […]
As a Child Listening to Ella Fitzgerald
Satin and velvet tonesbroke through the crackleof a seventy-eight on my parents’ turntable,crooning and scatting like a flock of birds.Ella’s voice, a warm hug, skippingthe melody or drawing out emotion like the dripping strand from a spoonof honey.She bent and spun songs I’d heard delivered straight on the radio, dry,gave them souls and made them […]
Nocturne in Grey and Gold: Chelsea Snow
Artists capture fleeting moments,but their impressions might remain for ever. Thus we feel the chill of snow and night air.We’re drawn from here to there,towards warm light. The shadowy figure crossing the bridgeappears to stumbleor slip on the icy pavement,drunk perhaps.We cannot see his face,but he seems determined,late for an assignation, angry, seekingcompany, or is […]
Immersed
The music has the cadenceof a wind’s caress;it conjures up a far-flung sea,where blues fluoresce,salty waters lap endlesslyon fragments of ancientPersian tribes, inhabitedby turtles, gulls and terns.It carries an echo of stories,the creak of a wardrobedoor to a magical world,a princely name from childhoodfantasy. Dust and disquiet,drum beat and euphony,one note evolves into polyphony,floating in […]
Party Piece
The years roll back, forty, forty-four,to someone’s kitchen, somewhere in Dublin, where the cider’s flowing, there’s Guinness and more,guitars are tuned, and the girls are gathered in. We’re smiling, Rita and I, sitting on the floor,enjoying the music, voices rising and falling. It’s a proper session, everyone joins in,but it’s fallen quiet. “Come on,” someone […]
The Egg and the Key
I found an egg, smooth and new;it was warm so I gave it to you –I wanted to see what you would do. Flocks of birds surrounded us two,they dived and swooped and flewuntil the sky turned a leaden hue. You took my hand, so I followed youto the aquarium at a nearby zoo,and the […]
Clair de Lune
On a bright summer’s day in Cologne,the leaves infused with rays of sunlighton a tree-lined street, and quite alone,I was delighted to hear moonlighttumbling from the strings of a guitar.I lingered by an open window, listeningto blue notes above the hum of cars,caught in a dream, like glimpsinga crescent moon through cloud.I leaned against the […]
writing in north norfolk 