I am an old oak bowed by years, knee-deep in my fractured limbs, leafless, bare of bark and splintered, destroyed by lightning in a storm. I am an old oak fraught with scars, and here you are with saw and axe already stained with another tree’s sap – I’ve anchored my roots to thwart your […]
Category: Poems
A Pair of (Still) Blue Eyes – final draft
They have retained their lustre, yet it is dark beneath closed lids. They filter light to conjure colour in dialogue with the brain, resonant as Shakespearean actors. Tired after years of looking and seeing beyond words, they require lenses, windows on blurry landscapes and distorted Giacometti figures. They are prickling thistles, friable pillows of delicate […]
A Pair of (Still) Blue Eyes
We have retained our lustre, no vile jellies, and yet we know darkness. We orbs are oratory with the resonance of a Shakespearean player. We have a direct line to the brain, filtering light to conjure colour. But we need lenses, windows on blurry landscapes, distorted Giacometti figures, aliens in our owner’s ocular world. We […]
Cruel Paean
For the past few weeks I’d caught it echoing across the village, a lazy iambic chant. When you heard it too, we smiled together at the rare sound of the cuckoo’s two-note song. We forgot that it’s a cold-hearted parasite, hatched and nurtured to the tune of another bird’s lullaby. We were oblivious to its […]
Dragon Quadrille
What has become of dragons? Do they leave trails of scales and seaweed on every rock and shore? Do dragons roar in echoes of thunderstorms, scorch burling clouds with lightning from their tails? Do dragons lurk in lava and ore deep within the earth’s core? What are they forging? Kim M. Russell, 3rd June 2019 […]
Ghazal of Trees
I marvel at the strength and grace of the green sinewy limbs of trees. There’s a frisson of surprise and joy when a flock of birds explodes from trees. I’m hypnotised by the dance of shadow and light when evening thrills through trees. My imagination takes flight when I see silhouettes of storm-blasted trees. I […]
A Brewing Storm
Salt marshes fade away beneath September skies tinged with nevermore grey and a violet obsession. I insist I’m right as rain, and brave the nor’easter to follow the riverway, fired up by a raven wing and the promise of a stormy day. Kim M. Russell, 30th May 2019 My response to Imaginary Garden with Real […]
Thinking of Prague
A dense morning fog hides statues flanking the river on both sides and wraps the castle in a shroud, hiding its glory from the small crowd that leaves the medieval town to cross the Gothic bridge of stone. We dodge each oncoming tourist, each phantom emerging from the mist, make our way to a coffee […]
The Lawless Season
In the midst of human lawlessness, we revel in spring’s lawlessness. Flares of yellow furze bushes are ignited by spring’s lawlessness. Fragrant frothing apple trees rejoice in nature’s lawlessness. Oaks are bursting into leaf, awakened by the lawlessness. Brambles break through wind-blown fences thorny-sharp with lawlessness. Every morning birds awake us singing praise to lawlessness. […]
Fast News is Like Fast Food
I remember when news wasn’t quite so new – it was events from yesterday, the day or even weeks before. Reporters sent telegrams and pigeons from far away. We waited for news of births, deaths and wars, read a newspaper over a cup of tea or coffee, ate fish and chips from it, smothered it […]
writing in north norfolk 