It was Easter, we were looking for something to eat before a gig; we were tourists wandering a street, canal on one side, on the other a row of houses. Our eyes slid sideways to glimpse through windows, idle curiosity in a city we had never been before, the picturesque home of pottery and Vermeer. […]
Category: Poems
Liminality
A rank of poplars, vertical in a horizontal landscape, coruscate before they blend into the leonine golden beige of land coming to rest. So many different shades on parade: sunlight gilds the roofs with sumptuous shafts that fade through pink and scarlet blushes, purple, then indigo, and twilight rushes into a moody half-light. Something haunts […]
Why Fly?
Why is the fly so bothersome,zooming from a corner of the roomto land upon the kitchen worktop,buzzing – will it ever stop?Why does a fly have no etiquette,using my sandwich as a toilet,spreading diseases everywhere?Why, fly, don’t you carethat most humans think you’re a dirty pest,they squash you flat and make a mess,while I gently […]
Bridging Seasons
Winter walked a thin, tight lightamong skeletal trees, so brightagainst the ashen sky. Quietsnowflakes painted branches white ~or were they glittering stars? ~ fluttering petals, opening buds,kissed by sun emerged from cloudsand birds that greeted spring aloud –to leave us fresh and greenly boughed. Kim M. Russell, 27th April 2021 My response to dVerse Poets […]
The Midding Ghost
In death as in life,always on the outsidelooking in, skirting the crowd. Avoiding the loud,I listen through a cloud:I am the midding ghost – just haunting, not lost. Kim M. Russell, 27th April 2021 Image by Steinar Engeland on Unsplash My response to NaPoWriMo Day Twenty-Seven Today’s challenge is to write a poem inspired by […]
Beltane Blues
Between the trees, the sky has fallen through;it has been conjured into nodding bells,Beltane’s all-knowing fairy traps of truth. It’s a Beltane pool, a soft echo of blueto dive into, a deep enchanted wellbetween trees, where the sky has fallen through. In among the trees the magic grewa shivering, shimmering wood of spellshidden in Beltane’s […]
I Want to Be Yours
I want to be your mouth wash drowning in your germsI want to be your mistle thrushdigging up your wormsif you like tea in a baglet me be your Earl Grey hagI don’t want to be a dragI want to be yours I want to be your spectaclessee things through your eyesI don’t want to […]
Edge of the World
Wait for me on the edge of sunriseamong dreams where the shadows play.When I wake, I will see your eyes,and your smile reflected in my morning teawill accompany me throughout the day,protecting me from this bitter grief. Wait for me on the edge of noon,where the spring breeze teases trees,and the comforting warmth of the […]
Weathering the Fantasies
Fantasies make their own body heat; warm air under their fluffed feathersprotects them from all kinds of weather,and it’s a cosy place to tuck their beaks. A build-up of fat under the epidermis is like fantastic thermal underwear; they can sit out long Antarctic winters or soar above the Himalayas. You might think that fantasies’ […]
Clever Fish
Soundlessbubbles slipfrom lips;silentpops and kissesbecomenouns,adjectives,verbs that swimbetweenlinesof verse,glittering silver-scaled wordswhisperingsun-dappledthroughthe lengthof a poem,against the flow,but with the tide. Clever fish. Kim M. Russell, 23rd April 2021 Image by Steve Halama on Unsplash My response to NaPoWriMo Day Twenty-Three Day twenty-three and the challenge is to write a poem that responds, in some way, to another. […]