Merry Christmas, aged librarian, your gift is wrapped in rosemary and thyme to protect your memories from mould and dust and enhance your sparkling metaphor and rhyme. This Christmas gift, Boris, is wrapped in a hanky; we can’t afford wrapping, so please don’t be cranky. We need all our money to rescue the country from […]
Category: Poems
New Day Dawning
Eerie moonlight lingers among broken trees and last night’s feathered singers’ dwindling melodies descend into kaleidoscopic dreams, leak into pointillistic skyscapes of fading stars, scattering promises of dew and dawn and the breath of a brand-new day. Kim M. Russell, 17th December 2019 My response to dVerse Poets Pub Poetics: New Year – New World […]
Stones and Lies
It was a long trek down that dusty road, so she sat on the kerb and counted the stones from her worn-down, second-hand shoes, the blisters on her feet and a heartful of blues. Reminded of years of promises and lies by the tears on her face and the grit in her eyes, she never […]
From Raindrop to River to Sea
It starts with a perfect drop of rain falling from a cloud – and the future arrives just as water, rippling the stillness of a pond, releasing mayflies, dragonflies, and herons that flap their wings like broken umbrellas against spring rain. The gorged river glints, powerful and steadfast on its intrepid journey to the coast, […]
The Moment When You Realise
You have been a familiar landscape to yourself, all these years of seeing your reflection in mirrors, shop windows, the still surface of a pond. You thought you knew the prospect of your frown, the parallel lines of your smile and the curves of your hills and valleys. Until one day, at a family gathering, […]
Echoes of Christmas
Suspended on the air, the tang of dead leaves, breath of wood smoke, tingle of frost and echoes in twilight. A full moon, pearly white touches reflections splintering the night, tinged with bright Christmas lights. Twinkling headlights, streetlight’s glow, and intimate lamp-lit windows remind us that now it’s time to go home. In the darkening […]
Love in the Half-Light
His shadow lingers in the half-light among the lacklustre souls of previous lovers. His shimmering fingertips and lips penetrate the penumbra, candle flames of passion. One look from his eyes transforms the night into a brand-new constellation of glowing stars. Kim M. Russell, 9th December 2019 My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads: May the […]
Pharos
Waves scream at gulls, scribble chaos in their wake, sculpt rocks into skulls, pummel cliffs until they break. Boats struggle to resist, anchors taut against the tide, rollers and undertow persist, ragged sails and ropes untied. Cliff-bound in purple shroud, the lighthouse flashes behind clouds. Rays of hope and steadfastness guide sailors through the darkness. […]
winter woodland
now is the time to explore you in misty light so low you become one inky shadow birch, ash, beech and oak let go of leafy glamour long ago abandoning piles of copper and gold now your copses are barefaced and bold your glimmering gnarly branches hold mulchy aromas of moss and fungus I long […]
Of Clouds and Sea
No sky’s completely cloudless, there are clouds we cannot see, tiny breathless drops of hope above a hopeless sea. Although we know it’s boundless, and its waves forever restless, human beings can be feckless in the ocean’s cold embrace, and our bodies spiral, weightless, to the bottom of the sea. But our atoms, although formless, […]
writing in north norfolk 