Although in our hearts and souls a fire has taken hold, crimson only burns up the canvas, fuels and lights the war, sticky as blood, congealing the soil and nothing nourishing will grow. The verdure of peace is a welcome balm, it cools the heat and keeps us calm. Kim M. Russell, 9th June 2020 […]
Category: Poems
Annus Horribilis
We’re only halfway through this year of crises that has stolen so many memories, sprayed terror like graffiti in our cities, and ravaged lives like blossom from spring trees. We cling to a glass cliff as our world falls apart, stunned by the contempt of presidential farts, the hatred and violence that’s breaking our hearts. […]
Isolation
After so many days wrapped in an unmanageable weave of fear, huddled under the tenebrous umbrella of isolation, a small glint of cheer had broken through the mass of cloud, caused a blackbird to spill golden droplets of notes, buoyant poems of liberty. But once again, a new terror stamps and punches its way across […]
One Step at a Time
The first weeks of interior life were hard: only one real person with whom to share my troubling thoughts, my hope, my fear. I spent weekdays with me, myself and I, those dubious sisters of doom and gloom who haunted my pandemic room. The silence outside was as deafening as my twisted sisters’ chattering, and […]
Morning Showers
sky water wood earth early morning elementals broken plumbic thunderclouds faint whiff of damp bark and rain-softened soil single jigsaw piece of sky a stray ray of sunshine silvers the rioting dill pearled with raindrops from the last smur* sky water wood earth Kim M. Russell, 2nd June 2020 My response to dVerse Poets Pub […]
Ironic
covid-19 became american: classist, capitalist, complacent torturous death cried out beneath a white policeman’s knee one thing follows another sweltering snarls unrest in so many cities the darkness of this time the milk-white palette what comes next? summer has blossomed the certainty of storm grows clouds from the horizon an archangelic season Kim M. Russell, […]
Be Careful What You Wish For
This year has unravelled like a discarded old sweater. The sound of distant traffic that died weeks ago sounds closer now, and the empty pandemic town has started to regain its orange glow. How long will we see the stars, scattered like salt across the night sky? We must not give in to temptation, take […]
Raven Rain
Ravens sweep the sky, wheeling and tumbling stringless black kites, until the sky weeps with impudent little tikes, whose sooty wings stir up a storm like dust, each curious eye a piercing stud of black diamante, until the clouds break. By afternoon, the earth is damp and green and lush, and somewhere a blackbird in […]
It used to be easier…
when there wasn’t so much to protest about, when war was war and peace was peace, and we saw the effects of nuclear power in newspapers and on the television screen. It was all about humans committing atrocities against other humans and fighting for our rights. Now our sacred Mother Earth is under threat from […]
Message from Your Future Self
You will tear holes in life, portals from one self to another, city to city, country to country. You will adapt your nostrils to different scents and smells, your tongue to sweet and sour. You will adjust your eyes to everchanging landscapes, falling from another sky to land on concrete or grass, sometimes on your […]
writing in north norfolk 