At the break of a chilly day,when the ghostly winter-greybark of beech trunks glintedin the low sun, I squintedand found, written in the frost,as if they had recently been lost,a scattering of words: poems scratched by birds,the cursive trail of a snail,the imprint of a pattern of ovalfox pads, toes of mole and mouse,just outside […]
Category: Poems
A poem to sum up my feelings in this post.
On the Fourth Anniversary of Your Death
Like the sky maps sketchedin the bird brains of the geeseflying overhead this morningin their flocks and vees,your gentle face is etchedinto my genealogy.I hear their honk and chatterloud and clear; they fly byas if it doesn’t matterthat a day cannot be erasedby hoar frost. Yes, it’s here again,sparkling like it did four years ago,stiffening […]
Dance of Joy
Beethoven shoutedhis incomprehensible joy,a wind that daredthe whole worldto dance helter-skelter,glitter on the river,to dance as melody,irresistible harmony,a symphonyto nature’s inhuman splendour:the gust,the tide,the breaking vinein the figure of a dance. Kim M. Russell. 7th January 2021 My response to Poets and Storytellers United Weekly Scribblings #51: Looking Back and Writing Forward, also linked to […]
Sea Turtle
I’ve been around for millions of yearsand shared the Earth with dinosaurs, who are extinct. You may think me slow,but in the ocean, watch me go, gracefully swimming (it beggars your belief)among swaying seagrass and coral reefs. I come ashore to the same beach to rest,to bask and sometimes dig a nest after decades of […]
This Isle of Noises
The corona virus has all but silencedthis isle of noises,masks have muffled our voices,damp squibs at the festival of light. Unmasked revellers light bangers and screamers,sparks of hope for dreamers,while Caliban sobs in a cornerover glasses drained of wine. Kim M. Russell, 28th December 2020 My response to earthweal weekly challenge: A Feast of Earth […]
Pandemic Bell
This year the bells have lost their hammers,no call to Christmas mass or carol service,just the silent ring of frost and the corvid’s clamourbefore it pecks the unseeing eyes of a much too early lamb. No jingle of shop doorbells, no one-horse open sleigh,just the tinkle of baubles on Christmas trees,the twinkle of lights in […]
Year’s End
The initial blast of snow that would only last an hour or so – was it a figment of the fearful mind or a tentative reminder of the rapid passing of Time? I imagine the Old Man sifting moments at his desk; the book of life opens itself and he sets about drafting the rest […]
This Is No Swan Song
Down in my bones, I feel that this yearhas not been our swan song.Though the waves came higher,and broken reeds were flungacross an uneven path,we were dazzled by sun-flecked tides.With the coming of winter,something else haunts the landscape:a swan drenched in mud-scent,alive with the tang of the river. Kim M. Russell, 16th December 2020 My […]
Sugar Daddy Revisited
Daddy,you have eaten all the sugar,left me hungry and bleeding,a blistered foot without a shoe;you know I must killand sculpture youas a marble statue,bastard, you. Thou wast my universe, my cosmic mistress;if I had known thy crazed intentto render me in alabaster, a lifelesslump of death,I should have beggedfor one last breath. His breathless body […]
A Change of Mind About Sharks
After years of needless fearof creatures I will never face,I’ve had a change of mindabout sharks being dangerous,blood-crazed and murderous. Last night, I watched a programmeabout the wonders of the deep,and marvelled at the pyjama shark,a stripy type of cat-shark (you know how I love cats). It lives on the bottom of the ocean,among kelp […]
writing in north norfolk 