The souls of soles, when bare, kiss earth, and sink into its vibrations. Shoes dull the senses, feet despair of boots and pumps, need sensations of soil and moisture, and the flow of air around each toe. Feet welcome liberation every summer; the change from bare white trotters to tanned exultation, collecting grains of sand […]
Category: Poems
Alice
I lie beneath this rusted cross of curlicues,surrounded by these muted churchyard hues,alone among lichen-covered stones,in the peaceful housing of my crumbled bones. You’re imagining my life, how bright my smilefor parents, siblings, husband, perhaps a child;you know my my name, the date when I was born –and died – but no idea of those […]
Whispering Branches
Through the window I can seeand hearmy corkscrew willow tree;it whispersancient storieson a blossom-scented breeze,but secretsgathered in its rootsare only ever sharedbetween the writer and her muse. Kim M. Russell, 7th April 2021 My response to Poets and Storytellers United Weekly Scribblings #64: Beloved Companions Rosemary is hosting today and sharing a photograph of […]
Eddying
Ayoungstream fillsthe spring woods,fizzes and chatters,bubbling up from its aquifer. At first it forms a tiny pool,clear and natural,eddying,untilspringfloods. Kim M. Russell, 7th April 2021 Image found on dreamstime.com My response to NaPoWriMo Day Seven Today’s prompt asks us to choose a syllable-based form: the shadorma, a six-line, 26-syllable poem or stanza – a poem […]
Adrift
You square no one, rain and earthneglect the thrust and seduction ofyour repulsive cell. Always adrift inthe same vast night, nobody putsup a fight and sits tight, cosmosand black hole of anybody’s wrongdestroying another darkness, horneffects of addiction, after you misseach other. Sit it out for the first time […]
I live by a river
The river wraps around trees,some fallen, some weeping,plays over branches,and twigs, scattering light. Yesterday was full of birdsswooping, diving, chattering,among young leaves;a robin blustered in the cherry, parrying the two-note callof a pheasant strutting amongdaffodils, eager for a matein these early days of rebirth. Today, unseasonal snowflakes meltas soon as they touch the silent earth. […]
Watching the Wind
I cannot hear the symphony of springbehind this window. I only hear the plague of tinnitus, the shiftingfloorboards, gentle thuds on the stairs when the cats are awake, the creakof a door in a draught. But I see the wind chimes swing, their notes riseinto the branches of the cherry tree. I watch it rustle […]
The Road to Norfolk
Where would we beif I hadn’t driven the road to Norfolk,to our little cottage by the sea? You might not have left,gone to live with your father,leaving me bereft. You might not have takenyour own long road of experience,acquired a faithful canine. You might not have metthe man who became your partner,friend, lover, father to […]
At the end of the party…
when it all slows down, music, body, brain, you feel like you’ve been drinking acid rain. Lights explode into colours and shadows are palpable; in the dark corners of a sofa, some are even huggable. Darkness starts to fade, daylight begins to hover through gaps in the morning and a mother of a hangover and […]
Blessed
The blackbirds declarethem an unlikely pair:the quince tree with herhunchback of a trunkand gnarly branchesand the ivy-covered plum,all winter silhouetted againsta cloudy sky. Now blossomcrowns them with haloes of whiteblessed with spring sunlight. Kim M. Russell, 31st March 2021 My response to Poets and Storytellers United Weekly Scribblings #63: Trees Rommy says that one of […]
writing in north norfolk 