I would love to return to the seasideon a sixties time machine ride,where my sister and I used to playwith our plastic buckets and spades. I would feel the sand between my toes,watch the waves crash on the stones,and run down to the sea to fill my bucketwith water to pour in our sandcastle’s moat. […]
Category: Poems
Elegy for a Gentle Soul
Without a grave where, lonely, I can weep,an urn or box of ashes I can keep,her soul lives on in photographs and songsshe used to sing when I was very young,the ones I loved to hum to my own child,and hum them still while walking in the wildand windy autumn lanes, wet-eyed with griefand almost […]
Moving
If I were a tree, I would not considermoving, my roots firm in soil,beneath green grass in summerand in autumn a leafy litterof russet, amber, umber, ochre. If I were a snail, I’d carry my home,followed by a silver trail,free to wander and to roamacross tarmac, stone and loam,sheltered by my spiralled dome. But I […]
Vs, Ws and Xs
On my first much-needed walkin a few weeks, a heron, statue-still,sat guard by the bridge – untilI took out my phone for a shot, and it slow-winged up and overthe dyke. Down the muddy lanethere were deep red berries,and overhead the clamour of geese flying in v, w and xformations, criss-crossing the sky.They left me […]
Beauty Hides in a Cupboard
Yesterday I cleaned out cupboardsinstead of organising words. I removed the pots and pans,checked that they were spick and span, and placed them on the work top.I marvelled as bubbles appeared in soap and water when I dipped a cloth into the bowl,laughed when a bubble sparkled, whole, and floated up towards the ceiling.Wiping hard, […]
Survivors in a Ruined City
We hide while bombs destroy our homes,mothers and children hunkeredin the dust of a city reduced to its bare bones. Men came, destroyed and, conscienceless,fled the scenes of devastation; they aregone while we survivors are hopeless, watching the afterbirth of jet contrailsstill fading in the silent sky.It will take years to clear the city of […]
Certainty
How can we be sure that our two hearts beat as one;that our two planets orbit around the same sun;that our footprints travel in the same direction?Do we share the same emotion? And how do we know? Kim M. Russell, 19th October 2023 Image by Filipp Romanovski on Unsplash It’s Thursday and at the dVerse […]
Grief Crows
The last of the wildflowershas faded, the air is pregnant with the first breath of falling leaves, and long grass is meshed with violet splashes, commonknapweed on common ground. A glance overhead reveals something flapping, a black glove or a hand, waving, first oneand then another, keeping close, mime artists skittering – […]
Tureen
The tureen is porcelain and deepand filled with thick and creamy soup.The scent is spicy and aromatic,the colours vivid and chromatic,with orange carrot and butternut squash,silver onion, green celery, a red flashof chilli flakes in a constellation,and floating planets of crunchy crouton.The ladle sits in its shiny groove,waiting for one of us to make a […]
Five oak trees point the way
(i)Look out for magpies,five on my silver birch,they will laugh at youfor a while, untilyou have counted them all. (ii)Listen for the sound of acornsfalling and bouncingacross the roadwhere five oak treespoint the way. (iii)Follow the aromaof freshly brewed coffeefrom the pubin the bend of the road –it opens at five. (iv)Don’t forget to stroke […]
writing in north norfolk 