We set up camp on the island, with fires and poteen to warmour skin and the cocklesof our hearts. We danced to the rhythm of the bodhran, sang along to guitars and fiddles,and the rise and fall of uillean pipes’ plaintive songs. The faeries all but laughed at our night-befores and morning-afters, lingering headache hangoversof […]
Category: Poems
Out of Breath
Orion tightened his belt,just a few notches, adjusted weapons and pelt,eager to continue the chase,shooting stars through space.Out of breath and fading yellow.Leo roared, and Taurus bellowed,Capricorn pawed black holesin the atmosphere,ready to run and full of fear.The cosmic hunt was on,all at the mercy of Orion. Kim M. Russell, 13th May 2021 Image found […]
Indigo
They called her Indigo, not the name of a goddess, but Greek all the same, meaning Indian dye. She’s the turning of twilight, the tint of an iris that blooms in the garden or the depth of an eye. Her name gives her freedom to stride where she pleases in new jeans the blue of […]
Holding up the Sky
They fill the earth with seeds and song,their bones and wings need to be strongto bear the responsibility of holding up the sky. They flock above the farmer’s plough,they watch us as we plant and sow,from their aspect up on highwhile they are holding up the sky. The smallest hummingbirds and wrensmake us smile, and […]
Untying
1. we lived on earth as humble bards all scribbled lines and wine glass shards bitter taste, tattoos and scars of long-lost poems we used to write the ones that kept us up all night and never seemed to turn out right 2. we fumbled and began untying knots of words, and gave up trying […]
Where It All Began
It seemed so much bigger then, red brick staunch against the weather,grey asphalt where we ran together,played kiss chase (you missed my lips and kissed my ear), made icy slides in winter.Those hungry waits in line outside the small canteen, air laden with indescribable smells, fingers crossed it was my turn to be water monitor […]
The Wherryman’s Return
Once I was lost in Norfolk mist that dims the view of wherrymen, grips you like a watery fist and pulls you further to the fen. I left her at the cottage door, waving with her handkerchief; it was the very last time she saw me, my darling widowed wife. But I still wander past […]
Earth Singing
Thousands of years of spinningmake me dizzy, and yet I see more clearly than I did before, despite the salty tears brimmingnot with creatures of the seabut plastic-coated. Scale and claw are permanently swimmingin pollution. Furthermore,I want to be relieved from the constant diggingat my flesh and bone, the chainsawsthat destroy my ancient trees, cause […]
First Bees of May
I watched a drowsy bee chewthrough its wintertime cocoonand emerge onto the edgeof a sunny window ledge.After a sullen start to spring,dandelions smile in grass.A dragonfly helicopters pastcherry and honeysuckle bowers,where flirty buds are burstingto unfold a flurry of pink flowersto bees, thirsty for heady sipsof pollen from dewy petal lips.That’s why a swarm of […]
Finding Your Horizon
To find your horizon,you must losesight of the shore. To lose sight of the shore,you must findthe ocean, and to find the oceanyou must dreamof a stream that fills your headwith fizzing and chatteringas it bubbles up, and then follow that streamuntil it forms a river,that strengthens and flows through hills and valleys,past villages and […]
writing in north norfolk 