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, […]
Category: Poems
A poem to sum up my feelings in this post.
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, […]
Cracked
It was a tragedy, seven years’ misfortune. And yet, the shards were beautiful, sharp edges shimmering, a dark rift spreading as the mirror cracked from side to side. A waterfall of tiny splinters tumbled to the stone flagged floor and underneath the bathroom door, tiny jewels of tears sobbed from her magnificent reflection: bound by […]
Blue Ink
Blue is a memory of days at primary school: of dipping pens into inkwells, the scratch of italic nibs, and a summer sky outside the classroom window, copying a poem by Blake or some old poet on lined paper, a blue tint of words. Blue was the colour of our uniform, much darker than ink, […]
Nettles
We are not subtle, although we blend, green in the midst of green, our sting, our poison bating our green breath with not a quiver. Hiding in the green, we remain unseen, waiting pungently for a patch of skin a recipient for our histamine; we long to puncture a scarlet tattoo, stinging souvenirs. Our hairy, […]
Sharp Teeth
I grew up to the sound- track of waves all around this tiny little island where trees offer cool shade and fruit of the brightest colours the one setback was the sharks that lurked in the water and fed on my family bled it dry drop by drop until it was just me in the […]
