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 […]
Category: Poems
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 […]
From Air to Earth (and different kinds of black)
Tongues of white misttangle with trees and bitter-sweet scent of leaf-rust tumbling into the obscurityof tantalising humus,from Titian hues to Vantablack, to outer space and back. Kim M. Russell, 9th December 2020 My response to Poets and Storytellers United Weekly Scribblings #49: A B C D E F G … After focusing on words recently, […]
Awakened by the Thaw
‘To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night’ (Gilbran) A heart stony with winter’s chill,and starved from arteries frozen still,needs gradual and gentle thawthat penetrates the very core.When temperatures start to climbafter months of deepest wintertime,shaking itself with a timid shiver,the heart becomes a singing river. Kim M. […]
Approaching the end of the year…
empty landscapes are waking up:weak December sun glints off frailwebs; frost sparkles in the sweepof headlights; we follow the trailof ancient sages in search of gold,frankincense and myrrh, in taleswe repeat so Christmas can be sold. Now, opening the advent doorsamid lighted candles and Yule trees,we cannot shake a sense of awe.Come New Year, we […]
This Blursday
I will drift betweenrooms and their limited viewsfrom book page to screen from sink to counterbottom half in pyjamasand tatty slippers a baggy sweaterwith the sleeves pulled down belowmy frozen fingers radio voicesloud to keep me companythe same old choices keeping tears at bayevery Blursday Kim M. Russell, 2nd December 2020 My response to Poets […]
They say only the south wind flattens grass
Beneath a sky as clear as an icicle, blasted nests sway in a bitter wind that tugs at the coat of a girl on a bicycle, wrestles her handlebars and steals her hat, gives the bell a cheeky little tinkle, and stings a face already chapped. They say only the south wind flattens grass, but […]
Boar and Bluebell
This is a green and pleasant place,ancient footprints cover its face,traces of post-glacial diversity,where wild boar, roaming free,broke bracken, churned woodlandsoil to muddy swamp, rooted aroundin compost black and brown,left wetland wallows overgrownwith hosts of rich and varied fauna,and colourful explosions of flora.Now, spring woods flood with bluebells,diluting diversity of sight and smell,their heady sweetness […]
Listening
Last night I didn’t gaze at lights in the November sky. Long beyond midnight, even longer into early morn, lingering solitary, lids drooped as I listened to legendary sisters’ songs. Leaning against the willow, lulled by silver harmony, lovely cosmic chords became laments for a lost sister, lugubrious Pleiades lilting quietly to me. Kim M. […]
Thankful
I am thankful for the small thingsthe early morning cup of teaheat blowing under my kneesin the relentless chill of the studythe blanket wrapped around mesunset orange, soft and comfya view of the garden and all I can seedried honeysuckle vines on a breezea cheeky pheasant pecking berriesa squirrel scurrying up the apple treedeer eating […]
writing in north norfolk 