The clay is moist in our hands. We probe it with damp fingers, feeling resistance until we simultaneously throw it on our wheels with a wet thud. Percussion. The rhythm of the kick wheel gives us impetus to knead and sculpt, and shapes emerge, breathing together with their creators, merging into a breeze, a windy […]
Behind a library shelf…
1. You breathe in earthy, musty, woody redolenceof paper, inky words, dreams,the comforting scentsof stories, poetry from past ages,paper that was born in reamsand cut neatly into pages. 2. You touch surfaces caressed by other fingers,pristine, dog-eared, annotated,abused, their colours:white, yellow, dessicated;the satisfying sussurusas you turn each page over. 3. You peruse crisp, fresh print […]
Diamond
He was wealthy, with a reputationfor breaking hearts and violencein his quest for love, not infatuation,an elusive gem in a mine of loneliness. Diamonds are darkling magnetsfor women of a certain kind;they attract gossip and rumour,but this kingpin didn’t seem to mind. He pulled each giggling, mindlessdebutante in a whirl of tipsy parties,always on the […]
Twisted in a Mini Ritz
Summer days in a silver Mini Ritzwith red racing stripes, bucket seats,and the perfect sound system,on the way from Twickenhamto Fulham. I had my windows down,stuck in jam, suffocating heat easedby a warm breeze, jazzing alongto ‘Twisted’: “My analyst told methat I was right out of my head”,enjoying dog days of freedom,doing my best Joni […]
Children of the Brambles
Thorny limbs snatch at naked skinon the twilit forest path; glancingright and left, we seek knots of berries,black and shiny as jet, followingbrimstone and comma butterfliesthat drift like graceful ballet dancersarrayed in spectacular sunset hues. We dodge wasps weaving among spursand landing on fruit that bursts with juice;pick flies and spiders from the clusters,brush cobwebs […]
The Egg and the Key
I found an egg, smooth and new;it was warm so I gave it to you –I wanted to see what you would do. Flocks of birds surrounded us two,they dived and swooped and flewuntil the sky turned a leaden hue. You took my hand, so I followed youto the aquarium at a nearby zoo,and the […]
Creature Comforts revisited
An old collaborative poem I wrote with Isadora Gruye several years ago has been resurrected and shared at Collaborature today. You can read it here.
Clair de Lune
On a bright summer’s day in Cologne,the leaves infused with rays of sunlighton a tree-lined street, and quite alone,I was delighted to hear moonlighttumbling from the strings of a guitar.I lingered by an open window, listeningto blue notes above the hum of cars,caught in a dream, like glimpsinga crescent moon through cloud.I leaned against the […]
no longer drifting
sculpted by salty waves and sandthe driftwood was almost out of reachon the dunes above the beachthrown high in a stormit had once been part of a living treetorn from itsrootsand manufactured into something practicallike a boat or a tableby the time it reached the shoreit was unrecognisabletwisted by the artifice of the ocean into […]
Persistence
Echoing rain muffles the air.Distance seems to be lost to cloudsclosing in like damp sheep. Sheeting raindrips and drums, persistent and loud.At the window, I hug a mug of tea, distantly,listening to rain disappear into the distance. Kim M. Russell, 15th April 2025 On 15th April we are halfway through NaPoWriMo, with the online gallery […]
writing in north norfolk 