Unlike most of her friends and acquaintances, her teenage years and early twenties were not so much sweet with romance but bitter with break-ups and dour with disappointment. “I don’t know why I was surprised every time love started or ended,” she told her therapist, “I never chose the unlikely men I ended up with, […]
The One Who Does Not Go Straight Home
I am the hare who does not go straight home. I relish the cool dew on my whiskers, the wind in ears and scut. Dawn steals past the farmer’s gate and I follow in its honeyed wake, zig-zagging fields, up and down hills, among the yellow daffodils, too full of giddiness to go straight home […]
Karumi Chrysanthemum
white chrysanthemum I look holding it straight no dust at all Basho no bee has penetrated this light-filled orb of petals Kim M. Russell, 5th Match 2020 My response to Carpe Diem Tan […]
Antibacterial
On a cold blue morning, she will sit on a crowded rattling train, antibacterial gel in her pocket, avoiding other people’s faces, sneezes, coughs and stares. She might fidget on her seat, watch the burgeoning greenery, the fresh flashes of fields and trees as she hurtles towards the city: crowds of strangers, with their mouths […]
Apple-ogia
They are our atonement for the half-eaten cores tossed from dusty, finger- smeared train windows, sprouted into hoards of apples, sparkling orbs, railway siding orchards. They’re a feast for birds, burnished rosy and russet, worm-holed and sweetly rotting to the fading drone of wasps drunk on the sadness of sugar. In spring, wind-fresh blossoms flutter […]
Ryozenji
above the temple hungry vultures soar and glide silent as the bells Kim M. Russell, 2nd March 2020 My response to Carpe Diem #1821: Ryozenji (the first temple) From today, we are making a pilgrimage along a selection of the 88 temples on the island of Shikoku and will follow in the footsteps of thousands […]
On first hearing The Planets by Gustav Holst
Of all the music created by Gustav Holst, Mars, the Bringer of War was the most terrifying to my young ears. The first time I heard it was in a music lesson at school, in which we had to work out the planet for each of the seven pieces, and I sensed darkness, drama and […]
Shikoku Island
so many temples echoing with pilgrims’ prayers peaceful path to zen Kim M. Russell, 2nd March 2020 My response to Carpe Diem #1820: Introduction to Shikoku Island This March we will be walking the pilgrimage along the 88 temples on Shikoku Island together to find inspiration for Japanese poetry, following in the footsteps of Buddhists, […]
Swells of Romance
When my husband moved to Norfolk, we walked our dog on the beach in all kinds of weather. The best time was after the summer season, when sea frets rolled in at short notice. But they didn’t bother us, walking hand in hand, throwing a ball or a pebble for the dog. They seemed to […]
The Colour of Love
the colour of love in all my favourite songs Joni Mitchell’s Blue Kim M. Russell, 27th February 2020 My response to Carpe Diem #1818: the colour of love Today the theme is ‘The Colour Of Love’ and we have a tanka by Jane Reichhold to inspire us: too old for new love the moon rises […]
writing in north norfolk 