When all wildlife is depletedand we are left to scrabbleamong limy rocks and burnt-outshrubs and copses, and rowthe marshland for sustenance,we may be rewardedwith a universe of daisiesto remind us of the past:the gathering of carrotsand merrymaking,all before facingthe death of the old year,the passing of the old life,the cold ash of isolation. Kim M. […]
Category: Poems
A poem to sum up my feelings in this post.
Glossolalia
Listen to the storm! It speaks in tonguesthrough a mouthful of leaves and windfallcores, a drunken lilt in its gale of a song. Listen to the storm! The tutting rainis gossiping through the windowpanein a language you will never tame. Listen to the storm! In the lingering draughtdown the chimney, from the windowsilland under the […]
A Robin’s Protest
After lively protesting all summer long,at first ablaze and full of umbrage,morning is broken by a different song. The melody falls with the foliage,in falling becomes more sorrowfulto see Earth going into freefall: leaves, acorns, a robin’s canticle. Kim M. Russell, 24th September 2020 My response to dVerse Poets Pub Meeting the bar: Protest Poetry […]
Poem in Dust Poetry Magazine
I’m absolutely delighted to have a poem featured in Issue 5 of Dust Poetry Magazine, which came out today. It is a beautifully presented on-line magazine, and the poems are of a very high standard, including one by the fabulous Jenny Mitchell, winner of the Segora Poetry Prize 2020, the Fosseway Poetry Prize 2020, a […]
A String of Pigeons
I count them on the power line:one, two, three, four, five pigeons,plump, grey, grumbling curmudgeons,with the occasional coyish coothat helped me througha pandemic void of company,a string of them, comical and pearly.Just before sunset,a window in the tumbling cloud,accompanied by a loudclap of wings, they explodelike fireworks that have lost their sparksinto the fading light,their […]
Invocation to the Wise Women
Misunderstood throughout history,tortured, drowned and burnt at the stake,you scrutinise Trumpian mockeryamid the terrible intensityof wildfires, plague and death,and all their haunted weirdness. You have seen us at our worst;this wicked summer we have seen it too,and we rue our inaction in the face of doom. Forget the shaman, Chiron and Mentor,all male, all muscle-bound […]
This Summer
I watched the movie of this summerfrom inside, shielded from the unrealityof vacant sunny days, no traffic noise,a drought of touch and laughter. I lived each day in the now,no plans for the after,uncertain if there would be any kind of future. And now, at the tail end of this summer,rain-diamonds decorate the windowpane,mornings are […]
This is not goodbye
A part of me remainsin the branches of the willow tree,giggling in the honeysuckle,and writing poetryin dust you will never wipe away. I will linger in your shower steamand permeate each dream,smiling at your silly songs,I might even sing alongas long as you don’t mind. My body may be gonebut my spirit still sighs,this is […]
Late Developers
Those late developers stare with dull, black, accusing eyes,pale leaves still strive for the sun’s weakening rays, flowers that should track summer shiver into autumn days. Might they warm themselves on their own golden gaze? Still closed in sulky pouts in early morning haze,have they the strength to open in a blaze? Time casts longer shadows, […]
Do you name your trees?
Late afternoon sunlight blinkslike my gold molar when I laugh. It jokes among the honeysuckle leavesthat hug the cherry tree. They are mapped with age spots and veins,frustrated at their fading. On the third shelf up,surrounded by fiction books and poetry, the photograph of my mother as a little girlstares from a frame made of […]
writing in north norfolk 