Painting from early morning, with the gusto of a New Yorker a Glaswegian a Marseillais eating a haggis a hot dog a bouillabaisse, the artist tried to beat the August heat before his still life wilted. Applying chrome yellow with textured impasto, he was determined to paint them all in one go. Now the tournesols […]
Category: Poems Inspired by Artists, Music and Other Writers
Invitation to the Tyburn Jig
In the shadow of the gallows, not far from the hangman’s noose, the young pick-pocket drowns in the shallow murk of a blindman’s holiday, once the jailer’s doused the glim. He was born under a threepenny planet, dipping wipers for a tot of lightning, dodging charlies and soul-drivers. Holed up in a gospel-shop, pot-valiant, he forgot […]
No Remorse
The master crept into the chamber of his hangdog handmaiden’s shame again and again. There was no remorse. The bruises on body and soul got worse, while his penitent wife battled nightmares in their marital bed, plagued by guilty demons shrouded in shadows of sleep, which was never deep – just a wallowing in the […]
Eyes Wide Open
At five o’clock, the moon’s face Peered into my window, Suspended in the space Between the branches of the willow, Pregnant with poetry. At six, I blindly tip-toed down the shadow Of the stairs, carefully Cradling my lunar embryo, Crooning a lullaby, a celestial tune To soothe the baby moon. At dawn, the poem was […]
Untitled (Last Piece of the Ocean)
each ripple is a piece of jigsaw shapes that sea and saw to infinity and beyond pieced together in a pond swimming pool lake or river warm as blood or cold as a shiver interlocking seahorse rocking seashell washing beach-crashing a wavy motion casting away the last piece of the ocean Kim M. Russell, 2016 […]
A Tangled Twist of Blue
A twist of blue saxophone notes rose From the early morning arcade, Through the blank stare of dark windows And onto the tangled sheets of an unmade Bed, where he dreamed of her, Wondering if she’d changed, Remembering the way she looked at him That evening in the park, When he felt a spark. They […]
Poetical Spouses
I have the honour of hosting tonight’s dVerse Poets Pub Poetics – Poetical Spouses. My challenge is inspired by Carol Ann Duffy’s collection of poems, The World’s Wife, in which she presented characters, stories, histories and myths from the point of view of the ‘women behind the men’. We are taking a character, fictional or […]
Resisting the Devil
My response to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Tale Weaver Prompt #74: June 30 2016: Word Associations For the Tale Weaver prompt for this Thursday we are exploring the concept/idea of word associations with ‘BLACK MAGIC WOMAN’. I took words from Peter Green’s lyrics to create a spell to resist the devil. The devil’s blind, he cannot see […]
Death and Life
My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads the sisters Death and Night ~ Micro Poetry Gazing with malicious grin The Grim Reaper comes harvesting Generations of the never-ending Circle of life. Death may swipe Infant innocence or guilt aghast, But humanity eludes his grasp. On a bright bed of flowers, Eve, the source […]
Overshadowed by David
My response to dVerse Poets Pub Chisel me a conversation When Michelangelo First touched his chisel to my skin My invisible fingers gripped it from within, In a struggle to be released From this marble prison. Sculpting myself through his hands, I freed my legs until I could stand, Muscles in thighs and calves tensed […]
writing in north norfolk 