Tread gently in this skyscape,where a single cloud can weighheavy on the soul. Some escape;cumulonimbi the shade of sludgebluster grumpily across the skyuntil the sun sets, and blackbirds trill in hedges. An owl hoots a reply,to a distant barking dog.It is then that I see dead people, looming like vaporous fog,and left-over dust and gasestransform […]
Category: Poems
My Garden Sanctuary
There is nothing neat about it;briars and nettles aboundso thick you use your feet to find some solid ground. It’s a wild jungle for cats and a leafy forest for deer, a green sanctuary. That’swhere I disappear, where poetry is the spin-drift of the green dream, the loose change in the pocket of time; the […]
The Leporine Waltz
Although hares may be mad throughout March, in the sun and the heat they continue to spar. As they waltz, the fur flies from their swift fisticuffs, unable to resist a last box round the ears. Ring the Hill, Old Fat Bum, Stag of the Stubble, all are mad hares and ready for trouble. Kim […]
Tir na Nog
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 […]
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 […]
writing in north norfolk 