November starlings blacken hedges, strip scarlet berries, dip in sedges, weave through layers of stubble and thistle, a whirring cloud of clockwork birds. A sudden burst of warble and whistle lodges like stone in my arid throat and leaves me scrabbling for words. Kim M. Russell, 2017 My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads […]
Category: Poems
Seven Days
I live in dark corners, a scuttling spider drawing you to my web. Ding dong dell, Pussy’s in the well, drowning in despair and dripping hair. The jerky gait on the video tape is a symptom of my pain, reflected in the depths of eyes that kill or drive you insane Kim M. Russell, 2017 […]
House of Trees
Many branches have been lost. Storm scars heal and leaves rain. Strong-standing trees twinkle with sunlight again, billowing autumn with colourful drifts and crunch of acorns underfoot. In the heart of oaken breasts, squirrels busily stock their nests, warm and winter ready. We too have taken stock: logs are stacked and kindling’s chopped; soon there […]
Erasing Shakespeare
Saucy and overbold beldam of death, mistress of charms, spite and wrath loves not you. Vessels and spells provide a dismal and a fatal end. Upon the corner of the moon, artificial sprites raise little spirit in a foggy cloud. Kim M. Russell, 2017 My response to dVerse Poets Pub Meeting the Bar: Look What […]
Clandestine
Leaves murmur in the woody copse. Twilight is more alive than sombre day and we fly outside time. Together we haunt waxing shadows; heart-stirring hoots bind us to sorrow; unearthly hiss and sigh, blinking discs of eyes and graceful drifting over tangled grass – a fleeting meeting and then they’ve passed. Kim M. Russell, 2017 […]
Slipping
The circus is over; curses escape rouged lips, the mask slips, dripping with clay lumpen and grey. Clown hands squeeze, poking dreams filled with screams trapped in a false face – a frozen grimace. Kim M. Russell, 2016 My response to dVerse Poets Pub Tuesday Poetics: The Metaphorical Mask, also linked to earthweal open link […]
Bay Tree Blues (or Greens)
Your branches no longer rub against the gutter, there is no friendly creak in boisterous winds; your limbs were amputated, disintegrated in the garden shredder. You still stand strong, birds sing among shiny winter green leaves, while you breathe out your noble pepper aroma. Kim M. Russell, 2017 My response to dVerse Poets Pub Quadrille: […]
Dedicated to a Dandy
Snout-fair and sweetly pargetted, you are a percher, peacockizing in your silken man-millinery, holding a slim cigarette between long fingers adorned with flashing jewellery. You may toss your scented hair and flash your painted smile, they may buy you popularity, but only for a while – until your skin wrinkles and your dazzling teeth fall […]
Leaving the Library
Inside the library, readers are turning leaves, devouring stories and stuffing words up sleeves to ponder at their leisure, while some are just hiding from the autumn weather. Outside the library and just inside the door, brittle leaves skitter in huffs of dust across the floor, cart-wheeling freely, while some are just hiding from the […]
Seasonal Impressionism
allusive brush of mist and dew dissolves fields the landscape becomes a swirling maelstrom trees are beaching whales Kim M. Russell, 2017 My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Fussy Little Forms: Shadorma This week Marian is hosting the weekend mini-challenge; she says she was thinking about how she’s been a bit stuck lately, […]
writing in north norfolk 