I stared at stars printed on the sky, the solar system in all its glory, and thought back to another time, a different city when Wren designed the dome that stands so proud beside the Thames, the best of London’s pride. I wondered about all who stood inside, who marvelled at the golden Byzantine oculus, […]
Category: Poems
Mouth Agape
Never worn, just hangingthere,eyeless and mouthagape,an emptiness thatspeaksvolumes of historical festivityand plague,the drunken pox, depravity,appetites and follyof the age. Kim M. Russell, 12th October 2020 My response to earthweal weekly challenge: Earth-Masks Brendan has given us a detailed background to this week’s theme: masks, something we wear now as […]
Grammar of Happiness
I remember you remember me remember when I lost my mind I remember it well making music making bread making money making my way downtown and then what and then the sun rave song and then we danced and then he kissed me poet for our times poet for hire poet for love poet wife […]
Walking down the front path
The same age as me when I left, no older,you got in a stranger’s car with a new start in sight, a friend’s arm around your shoulder,steering you towards a life of which I was no part. The rear view was blocked, I moved a little closerto stand on the pavement, felt the drop of […]
Elephant
In a world of watery hues,greens and blues,her vision is binocular,staring at the moon, oblivious to stars. Her worn ears, torn ears, flare,moth-eaten flags as she swaysthrough overhanging leaves,trunk reaching. She grieves. Vibrations of heart and lungsripple wavelike across skin,map of life ingrainedwith wrinkles, rubs and stains. Floundering feet, ancient prints in the dust,track memories […]
Sensing October
I pull October from the mist,gather up the weavesafter the storm has tried to stripthe trees of blushing leaves. I wind them round my finger,the delicate wisps that lingerin fallen apples rottinginto cider scent, in dangling corpses of daddy-longlegsand dew-encrusted spider-webswoven in between red sunsetsand orange mornings. I untangle gossamer spanning timeand space to make […]
Tired But Thankful
You woke me upin the early hourswith your persistenceand your words. Now I’m upbefore the birds,brain whirring,fingers tapping, slave to the emphatic vatic. I’m tired but thankful,but an image would be useful,something ekphrasticto brighten up my dreams. Kim M. Russell, 29th September 2020 My response to dVerse Poets Pub Poetics: The Vatic Voice Lisa is […]
Michaelmas Daisies
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. […]
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 […]