smouldering fireplace the sweet perfume of burned herbs loneliness grabs my throat Chèvrefeuille spent embers crumble and fall in smoke of burnt-out passion Kim M. Russell, 1st May 2019 My response to Carpe Diem #1654 Tan Renga Challenge (1) Smouldering Fireplace Today we have the first episode of May 2019 in a month of Tan […]
Ghost of a Chance
What is this twilight, this world of shadow? Neither day nor night, we name it limbo, the crumbling ledge on the fiery edge of hell. We think we know it well, and yet the glow of hellfire is tempting compared with the empty darkness of uncertainty. Anything to stave a spiritual void beyond the grave. […]
Morningsong
Morning breaks slowly; in the emerging light, robins and blackbirds rehearse their words, tuning up quietly before they release their songs like raindrops into the stream of morning birdsong to seep into my dream. Kim M. Russell, 30th April 2019 My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Tuesday Platform Poems in April Day 30: […]
Picnic Under the Stairs
When I was nine or ten, we moved from a two-bedroom ground floor maisonette to a three-bedroom top floor maisonette on the same estate. I got the box room: it had a huge box that was the top of the stairs, which took up almost a quarter of the floor space, leaving room for a […]
Souls
Why does the Earth keep turning, rolling back the night each morning? Where do we keep our souls? When will the sun stop burning and the moon stop shining? Why can’t we see our souls? How do we not stop breathing until the point of dying? Is that when we become souls? Kim M. Russell, […]
Photo-shopping Basho
autumn arrives breathing sighs into my ear a pillow of wind Kim M. Russell, 28th April 2019 My response to Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #82 Introducing a new feature: photo-shopping haiku This weekend we have a new feature, revising a haiku in a similar way to photo-shopping: just a little change to make the difference […]
Cherry Petals
clusters of petals snatched and scattered by the wind blush of confetti Kim M. Russell, 28th April 2019 My response to Carpe Diem #1652 Cherry Petals (modern kigo) In the penultimate episode of April 2019, in which we have explored modern and classical kigo for spring, our challenge involves a modern kigo taken from Jane […]
Play for Me
Backlit by counterpoints of sunlight, your face a harmony of shadows, fingers merge with black and white, release major chords of red and yellow, and mournful minors, grey and blue. They shift between darkness of minus and lightness of plus, shades of you and me, until a sunbeam, dotted with motes of a melody, breaks […]
Children at a Refugee Camp
Wide eyes and swollen bellies, bruises on the soul: honeyed drips of birdsong. Kim M. Russell, 27th April 2019 My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Poems in April Day 27: In a Station of the Metro Today Toni is hosting and she reminds us that there are only three more days to go […]
Chimney Pot
On warm days, when the fire’s unlit, one or two pigeons often sit on the roof and on a chimney pot, where, of course, it’s no longer hot and there’s no chance of being choked by the ever-swirling smoke of winter. In spring and summer, when I’m busy in the kitchen, I hear the pigeons’ […]
writing in north norfolk 