The gulling of waves takes our breath away, puffin and skirling with the chill. Latter-day Canutes, we crave to tern the sea away, but salt water cormorants and spills onto our feet. This day is another one that will stay in our hearts, a snapshot and a guillemot thrill. Kim M. Russell, 1st June 2023 […]
Category: Poems
Riverbank
The riverbank beavers a hustle and bustle once spring is underway. A wagtailing wind tugs the last of the catkins throughout the month of May. Warblers and dippers fly over rivers that surge and swell with rain ‘til the sun otters out with a spiral of sparkles – the river’s alive again. Kim M. Russell, […]
Birdsong Bonanza
Dawn chorus is a wall of sound, wildest festival of the year; spring flowers and blossoms abound, and the summer will soon be here. When birdsong’s almost at its peak, dawn chorus is a wall of sound, blackbirds open their golden beaks to take part in the joyful round. Maytime magic is all around; in […]
Mary Alice Muted
She is muted, not just in colour.He has painted her in hues of dolour.and taken away her voice.I wonder, had it been her choice to find herself so portrayedin shades of violet, green and greyto the modern art world’s eyes,to be so closely scrutinised, or did she trust the artist’s view.Lacking softer tones of blue,I […]
Writing Freedom’s Wings
The pen was the key to the poet’s voice; the guards took it, and with it the poet’s choice. But they could not take unspoken words, could not stop images forming into nouns and verbs, which became feathers and then wings. Justice knows why the caged poet sings. Kim M. Russell, 16th May 2023 Image […]
Bathroom
I see her through the steam settling on tiles and glass, obscuring their usual gleam; she has no definition, no face until I wipe the surface clear. Her face is a mirror – I take a breath – understand that we share this face beyond death. Kim M. Russell, 15th May 2023 Image by Ria […]
Curators of the Night
They are busy on the night shift,dusting off star drift,polishing up the moon in all its forms.(It’s always being tarnished by space storms.) The library’s astronomerscans the sky for astral bodies, gathersmoons, and stars that fall to Earth,and shelves them until their monthly rebirth. They lend them out too,to people like me and you,romantics who […]
Memory’s Drift
Its leafy dome makes me think of you, the way you leaned against the willow tree, gazed through branches at a patch of blue – I knew I’d love you endlessly. In darkest shadows I begin to drift, aching for that happy summertime; now memory with ageing starts to shift, and poetry no longer rhymes. […]
Sett for Life
Don’t badger me about my burrow, it keeps me safe from rain and cold, from dangerous predators, humans too; my ancestral home is centuries old. My forebears’ powerful claws dug deep a sturdy network of chambers and tunnels, a realm with a semi-circular keep beneath the hills and wooded dingles, where I gather grass and […]
The Poet Gives Up
Vincent might have felt differently when he tried to paint a starless night in Saint-Remy: the poet detests the pungency of words stagnating in her mind like a humid day. She sees them fall, lumpen and heavy flocks of birds that scratch her with censorious claws as they ascend again into phonemes, oscillating with unsatisfactory […]
writing in north norfolk 