I was delighted to receive by email this review of Joe and Nelly from thirteen-year-old Samanta: “An amazing story about two best friends during World War Two. It has a brilliant storyline and very realistic description. At some points I could truly imagine how the characters felt as a result of how well this book […]
Match of the Daisies
Thank you to Patricia of Poetry Pea for sharing my haiku on Pea TV Moments today, and to Robert Horrobin, for the video.
One Step at a Time
The first weeks of interior life were hard: only one real person with whom to share my troubling thoughts, my hope, my fear. I spent weekdays with me, myself and I, those dubious sisters of doom and gloom who haunted my pandemic room. The silence outside was as deafening as my twisted sisters’ chattering, and […]
Morning Showers
sky water wood earth early morning elementals broken plumbic thunderclouds faint whiff of damp bark and rain-softened soil single jigsaw piece of sky a stray ray of sunshine silvers the rioting dill pearled with raindrops from the last smur* sky water wood earth Kim M. Russell, 2nd June 2020 My response to dVerse Poets Pub […]
Ironic
covid-19 became american: classist, capitalist, complacent torturous death cried out beneath a white policeman’s knee one thing follows another sweltering snarls unrest in so many cities the darkness of this time the milk-white palette what comes next? summer has blossomed the certainty of storm grows clouds from the horizon an archangelic season Kim M. Russell, […]
On the Slipway
A breeze slipped in from the ocean, placed foreign kisses on the boat’s prow and on a young man’s brow, promising so much as it skipped from wave to wave. It offered the horizon from the safety of the slipway. A voyage for another day. Kim M. Russell, 1st June 2002 My response to dVerse […]
Be Careful What You Wish For
This year has unravelled like a discarded old sweater. The sound of distant traffic that died weeks ago sounds closer now, and the empty pandemic town has started to regain its orange glow. How long will we see the stars, scattered like salt across the night sky? We must not give in to temptation, take […]
When the Jackdaws Clatter
Visual Verse has found another unusual image, this time by an unknown artist, from the Getty Open Content Program, which is the inspiration for a wide range of writing in the May 2020 issue, Vol. 7, Chapter 7. You can find my poem on page 35 or you can link directly to the poem, entitled […]
Raven Rain
Ravens sweep the sky, wheeling and tumbling stringless black kites, until the sky weeps with impudent little tikes, whose sooty wings stir up a storm like dust, each curious eye a piercing stud of black diamante, until the clouds break. By afternoon, the earth is damp and green and lush, and somewhere a blackbird in […]
Chickenpox
Summer was the worst time to be sick, tucked up tight in bed, restrained by grandmother’s hospital corners, bullied by the clock’s resonant tick. The room was stifling, even the sticky Lucozade was too warm to fizz, and the fly too drowsy to buzz and batter against the window. Outside, neighbourhood children played, lawnmowers droned […]