I’m sitting in my study in front of my laptop, Filofax and paperwork littering the desktop. In the background, The Archers is on the radio, otherwise the house is still, my only company Mojo, the little green-eyed cat, scrutinising every move I make, her pink nose pushing at my hand, urging me to take a […]
Category: Poems
A poem to sum up my feelings in this post.
Outstaying our Welcome
“You are a guest of nature” (Hundertwasser) boots crush vernal grass and clover barley heads droop the once living quilt of meadow has shrivelled up and died and the earth shivers with fear as the sun climbs ever higher above the blasted pasture of the biosphere while humans bandy words like ‘zero tolerance’ they neglect […]
Unseen
I no longer need to hide in doorways and shadows – I’m one of the unseen. I’m a tatty pigeon faltering on feathers of memories. I’m a twisted old silver birch, invisible in moonlight. I’m a river with no audible ripple, grown lumpen and tufty, dried to a trickle and a tangle of reeds. I […]
At the Crossroads
She stood weeping at the cross- roads, a delicate English rose, torn by the thorns of a troubled life, seeking balm in the bubble of a fragrant garden and the answer to the age-old dilemma, the decision we all have to make: which path should I take? Kim M. Russell, 1st February 2019 My response […]
Like Marilyn
In those old photographs, I see a teenager, pale and lacking confidence, happy to allow mother or sister-in-law to take over for a while, united in womanhood, your blonde hair curled around your face, like Marilyn’s. I arrived too soon. The sparkle of the glamorous life you hoped for faded into monochrome. You grew up […]
Woken by Birdsong
This morning I was woken by the sound of birdsong, a faint and distant tiny tin whistle of a song, as I lay in the cosy comfort of my warm bed and contemplated getting up and whistling along. Pulling a woolly sweater over my tousled head, I stepped outside, where a two-toned light began to […]
Unfettered
Snowdrops bring (de) light to the darkest, coldest months of winter: one day, tentatively poking green heads through hard soil; the next, trickling into a snowdrift of white flowers, gentle harbingers of unfettered reproduction and the joyous riot of spring. Kim M. Russell, 29th January 2019 My response to dVerse Poets Pub Poetics: Harbinger, also […]
Heart and Other Beats
With the sarcastic percussion of fingers on the table top, my heart used to skip a beat. I longed for the comforting generosity of chimes in a summer garden instead of the irascible crash of cymbals, a teenage girl flouncing out the door; I don’t hear that any more. Kim M. Russell, 26th January 2019 […]
Tumbledown Shed
Weighted with ivy, tessellated with lichen and moss, the roof has splintered and caved in. Perhaps something has settled among the long-forgotten tools and pots – now homes for mice and spiders. Our sentinel by the rickety gate sheds flakes of peeling paint. The padlock key is long gone and its treasures remain hidden. Kim […]
Falling
It’s falling – snow, white and bitter, blows in on biting winds perfumed with winter. Thickening flakes paint a pointillist monochrome landscape, a gift for the optimist, sled ready, hoping for a white-out, while a crowd of children starts a snowball fight. By late afternoon, everything’s silent and grey, even the snowmen have nothing to […]
writing in north norfolk 