Category: Poems

Breathing Space

minds need oxygen space in which to breathe circles around a living tree with green lungs for green minds breathing space in which to grow circulating, flowing and growing inspiring spiral steps from level to level increase aspiration to become trees with green minds breathing space in which to grow circulating and growing breathing space © Kim […]

Morning Sun in October

Overnight gusts of wind and rain have plucked leaves from the trees, waking early morning birds: October’s first words. Glints of sun on haws in hedgerows evaporate tear-shaped drops of rain on gleaming rosehips: a smile on your lips. Rowans droop under weight of fruit, scarlet beads radiate with promise of fair weather: a day […]

Withstanding Life’s Wreckage

Life’s storm blows in from elsewhere. She’s wrung out, Washed up By a swollen sea. Breakers bear down, Rolling in interminable hosts, Torrents of foamy ghosts, The only sounds of wind And her wails: Her mast is broken, Jerking in a tangle of rigging and sails. With Morpheus’ help, she dives under And drifts into […]

Sheaves in Autumn

Sheaves of cloud weeping seeds of rain on plane leaves wet and black echo muffled on the lawn- it’s autumn again. Remembrance of the sheaves of men harvested from French fields engenders tears from heaven for those who were slain. © Kim M. Russell, 2016 Image found on Pinterest My response to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie B&P’s Shadorma […]

Seasonal Perspectives of a Corkscrew Willow

1 Winter willows throw dramatic and distorted geometric shapes. 2 Naked trunks rise cracking from brittle grass, shedding frost and ice. 3 Intricate lace of charcoal branches is pinned to pale winter skies. 4 Lemon catkins, wriggling with new growth and warmth, anticipate spring. 5 Tousled corkscrews are teased into a tangle, wind-willowed. 6 Leaves […]

In Honour of the Moon

The sky is shattered glass in dead of night, Crackling and pulsating with splintered light; A mass of constellations burning bright And scintillating in shimmering white, In honour of the moon, Earth’s satellite.   © Kim M. Russell, 2016 My response to Jane Dougherty Writes Poetry challenge #50: Fifty For the fiftieth challenge, Jane has given us […]

Canal Reflections

Firefly reflections splash Inky canal water, Citric paint rinsed From the badger brush Of a Dutch master. Against the interplay Of twilight and shadow, Charcoal scratches Of lacy willow Veil a violet sky. Framed by a coal-black arch Like the lens Of the tow-path walker’s eye, A masterpiece unfolds Beyond the damp echoes Of the […]

After Reading Ozymandias

After reading Shelley’s ‘Ozymandias’ in bed, My lashes fluttered, eyelids closed, So I lay down my weary head. In vivid dreams the poet took me by the hand: I was the traveller in an antique land. He led me across the expansive desert, showed me In a distant place two vast and trunkless legs of […]