Earth is a puzzle of constantly changing shapes and landscapes; we are missing some pieces from the cosmic jigsaw as we spin and see-saw through space. It’s being pulled apart by the human race. How can we put our Humpty Dumpty planet together again? Kim M. Russell, 30th July 2018 My response to dVerse Poets […]
Category: Poems
Tree-house Terror
I search all round the garden; she wasn’t in her bedroom or the den, not lurking in the ghostly shadows of the infinite corridor. I cross the lawn, enter the copse behind the hedge covered with yesterday’s washing: sheets, pillowcases pinned to twigs instead of using washing pegs. Branches rustle, I hear giggling from the […]
The Hollow Sound of Winter
Geese fly overhead, chain-stitched in a skein by the beat of wings. The gaggle alights on a lazy wind, flowing like water into the marshes, their harsh, hollow honks onomatopoeic echoes of winter past present future. Kim M. Russell, 26th July 2018 My poem for dVerse Poets Pub Open Link Night This Thursday I’m hosting […]
Our Wilderness
Our garden is a green wilderness, an overgrown, tangled wildness, where cats stalk zoetic shadows and deer graze freely beneath willows; dragonflies dart between clumps of nettles, ladybirds wander and butterflies settle. No flowers are tamed or lined up in rows; it’s rampant with honeysuckle and rambling rose. Ancient quince, plum and apple tumble from […]
Sprig Spell
I build the spell with witch hazel, a woody frame to brighten gloomy days with spidery flowers in sunset sprays, sublime with spicy scent. I bind the spell with tendrils of evergreen ivy to ward off evil spirits, its heart-shaped leaves glossy with friendship and fidelity. I add some sprigs of rosemary to help you […]
Buoyant in Shadows
Splashed by shadows in the semi-cool of an empty swimming pool and feeling liquid-loose and buoyant from the sun’s electric current, I am floating in glimmers of past divers and swimmers; shouts and screams echo in daydreams of long ago summers at the lido. Kim M. Russell, 24th July 2018 My response to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie […]
Dreams of Fire
In the middle of a hot and breezeless night, I’m drenched in sweat and wrestling with the sheet snaked around my legs. I’m running from a heath fire, purple heather sizzles into burnt sienna and birds explode in showers of feathers, glowing and spitting like fanned embers. A sharp-winged dragon skims the hummocks, breathing flames […]
Anguish
Anguished cries of lapwings rise from deep in sedgy fields to sky; their tinny raspings bring to mind an anguish of a different kind: the mewling of a starving child; a young girl’s screams as she’s defiled; a mother’s keening of despair; a grandmother’s calm and care as she sings a soothing lullaby of winter […]
Caged Moon (a septet)
Willows, the anchors of life, felted with silvery grey, captured the moon and his wife in a basket canopy, where daddy longlegs rattle and candle flies do battle: at the end of a hot day. Kim M. Russell, 19th July 2018 My response to dVerse Poets Pub Meeting the Bar: Septets This Thursday, Frank Hubeny […]
Freed
I remember in 1986 a free concert on Clapham Common when Sade sang. Later, we raised our voices in a chorus to ‘Free Nelson Mandela’. Not long after, he took that long walk to freedom, with dignity and humility, shared his wisdom and showed how one man can unite many. He lived a long life, […]
