I will drift betweenrooms and their limited viewsfrom book page to screen from sink to counterbottom half in pyjamasand tatty slippers a baggy sweaterwith the sleeves pulled down belowmy frozen fingers radio voicesloud to keep me companythe same old choices keeping tears at bayevery Blursday Kim M. Russell, 2nd December 2020 My response to Poets […]
Category: Poems
They say only the south wind flattens grass
Beneath a sky as clear as an icicle, blasted nests sway in a bitter wind that tugs at the coat of a girl on a bicycle, wrestles her handlebars and steals her hat, gives the bell a cheeky little tinkle, and stings a face already chapped. They say only the south wind flattens grass, but […]
Boar and Bluebell
This is a green and pleasant place,ancient footprints cover its face,traces of post-glacial diversity,where wild boar, roaming free,broke bracken, churned woodlandsoil to muddy swamp, rooted aroundin compost black and brown,left wetland wallows overgrownwith hosts of rich and varied fauna,and colourful explosions of flora.Now, spring woods flood with bluebells,diluting diversity of sight and smell,their heady sweetness […]
Listening
Last night I didn’t gaze at lights in the November sky. Long beyond midnight, even longer into early morn, lingering solitary, lids drooped as I listened to legendary sisters’ songs. Leaning against the willow, lulled by silver harmony, lovely cosmic chords became laments for a lost sister, lugubrious Pleiades lilting quietly to me. Kim M. […]
Thankful
I am thankful for the small thingsthe early morning cup of teaheat blowing under my kneesin the relentless chill of the studythe blanket wrapped around mesunset orange, soft and comfya view of the garden and all I can seedried honeysuckle vines on a breezea cheeky pheasant pecking berriesa squirrel scurrying up the apple treedeer eating […]
Canned
I haven’t seen a Campbell’s can for decades, with its boring, old-fashioned label. When I think of all those tomatoes that were crammed inside, I wonder if they‘re out of date, whether they stink, if there’s mould on top, if they have dried out, shrunk, drained of bloody red to anaemic pink spotted with bits […]
Covid Celebration
hesitation before the grip of winter’s chillalmost all the leaves are goneexposing branches to a cloudless skyand pale light of a more distant sun isolation I watch it from the windowcold glass between me and the worlda video call heralds the promiseof a smiling face celebration a Sunday birthday this yearfour decades of being my […]
Feline
Orbs of honeyed trustglow in the darknessat the end of the bed,incandescent torchessearching in the nightfor human heat.In the morning,after breakfast and a treat,blue-eyed companionrelinquished for the day,the owner of the amber eyesgoes out to hunt and play. Kim M. Russell, 17th November 2020 My response to dVerse Poets Pub Tuesday Poetics: Look into […]
Honest Rot Rondel
After autumn has burnishedfallen leaves and bracken,tufts of fern and verdigristransform the palette. Along mudbanks coatedwith emerald algae,mare’s tails’ spiky greentips release glowing nebulae in stagnant ponds,and licheny flora clingto earth, tree, wall and rock,tiny forests of green lungsall exhaling honest rot. Kim M. Russell, 16th November 2020 My response to earthweal weekly challenge: Keep […]
While we are otherwise engaged
In the solitude of lockdown and the peaceful safety of a village on the Broads, news drips in slowly. If it wasn’t for social media and local TV news, we might forget for a minute that the sea is creeping ever nearer, destroying sea defences, toppling homes from cliffs, and eating up the coast while […]
