Winter Apologia

I forgive the winter darknessthat carries deep withinthe unspoken promiseof the electricity of spring.Every dancing snowflake,each frost-muted twig,stows trickles of bird song,brightly budding sprigsof snowdrops, bluebells, cowslipsand wood anemones,and bursts of fragrant blossomin hedgerows and trees. Kim M. Russell, 23rd October 2019 My response to Poets United Midweek Motif: Forgiveness Sumana brings us forgiveness as […]

A Question of Tears

‘From where does the thundercloud come with its black sacks of tears?’- Neruda Black sacks of tears arrived on my doorstep today; I thought they’d been delivered by the coalman, until I opened them, and some teardrops got away, attaching themselves to leaves and gutters, dripping on my shoulder, soaking my jacket like a sobbing […]

Quivering Leaf

A blushing orange autumn leaf quivers in the cherry tree like a toddler’s bottom lip before a single sparkling tear trickles down a perfect cheek and drops onto his mother’s hand, and she doesn’t wipe it away, making me smile on a windy day. Kim M. Russell, 21st October 2019 My response to dVerse Poets […]

Shades of the Seashore

We walk along the blustery beach, embraced by towering arms of rock laced with white foam cuffs. Falling sheer to shore, sombre cliffs, banded with distorted strata of basalt, rusty iron, brown and buff, are broken by moss-cloaked boulders, moist with silver sea mist and rain, and crowned with gnarled oak, wind-blasted, salt-stunted limbs leaning […]

Mouse

companionable scratching behind the wainscot little harvest mouse Kim M. Russell, 21st October 2019 My response to Carpe Diem #1766 mouse This month we are celebrating Carpe Diem’s 7th birthday and the smaller creatures of nature. Today we are creating haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry forms on the theme of the ‘mouse’.

One Starry Night

one starry night to make that one painting – the rustling leaves                          Chėvrefeuille (2014) silent comets fall to earth illuminating willows leaves and branches blaze bright and silver with starlight under the moon’s eye only trunks lie in shadow holding up the studded sky an owl screeches breaking the starstruck silence sharp talons ready its […]