I walk alone where hard pebbles roll beneath soft soles. The ocean is whipped and lacy waves, a mêlée of foamy white and foggy grey, chase across the sand, tickle toes, lisping at the fragile edge of solitude. Kim M. Russell, 27th March 2019 My response to Poets United Midweek Motif: Solitude Sumana says that […]
Category: Poems
A poem to sum up my feelings in this post.
Bright Grace
In the darkness of a November night, the autumn moon rose proud and bright, and so did you, my magical child, in a landscape green and wild. You were my ēlē every morning, the grace of light, of each day dawning, the most beautiful in Celtic lore, Gráinne, beloved, a mythical flower. Kim M. Russell, […]
Pigeon Steps
Throughout history, women have taken pigeon steps, played ‘What’s the time?’ with Mr Wolf, as if our feet were bound, crinolines rigid and tightly laced, ankles hidden – we knew our place. Now we have shredded ribbons, learnt to march and ride our bikes burnt bras and held on to property, paving the way to […]
Humming into the Wind
Through sullen branches of ancestry, a deadened wind soughs a song of loss. Straggling souls skim the trees in skeins towards an ancient rookery to caw themselves to sleep. They echo through insomnolent dreams, but silvered by moonlit poetry I hum against the windy wings, through a mouthful of mouldering leaves, and the succubi of […]
Early Spring Landscape
We walk into a landscape where flowers light up verges, they peep between the hedge gaps, adorn churchyards and copses. Where flowers light up verges, the earth is not just greenscape, throughout churchyards and copses a spring colourwash escapes. The earth is not just greenscape, it glows with yellow urges; the spring colourwash escapes and […]
The Point of a Wizard’s Hat
It’s filled with language, thoughts and magic that escape like clouds to the atmosphere. The full moon shudders, she knows how tragic it is for wizards to live in fear. In fear of what, I hear you ask, with power at their fingertips? Fear of fickle fingers pointing, bramble sharp tongues and lies on gossips’ […]
Do butterflies get drunk
on fermenting sap and pollen, like wasps and bees? And are there epic stories imprinted on wings that flicker as they fly, quirky cartoons like the ones we drew in the corners of our exercise books? I’ll have to wait until drowsy summer days, when I’ll hide in the long grass behind the willow and […]
Kölsch (revisited)
Kölle Alaaf! I miss the echo in the streets, the crowds on Rudolfplatz and Neumarkt, the oompa pa of familiar Fastelovend songs and cries of ‘Kamelle!’ as sweets hailed down. You helped me dress up as a clown. I drank cold Kölsch, ate salty Pommes mit Mayonnais’. You taught me the words to ‘Mer losse […]
Nesting
On the rooftop, sparrows twitter, peering quizzically from the gutter; they flurry feathers, swoop and pirouette, dodging in and out of privets. Peering quizzically from the gutter, they carry bits of twig and moss, dodging in and out of privets to patch and line their new-built nests. They carry bits of twig and moss and, […]
Goodbye Mundane Monday
I wake up early and greet another day, a mundane Monday, damp, cold and grey. Winter should be over, or so the buds tell me, there should be sunshine and daffodils. I watch a smoking feather, a skylark rising, and then a second hovers above the winter field – then another, and another ascend into […]
