On my lap,is a warm cat,no cuckoo in the nest,and in my handmy favourite cupof cranberry and raspberry, a fruity burst on the tongue,never unfit for purpose,warmth spreading from mouthto the cockles of my heart,heightening the senses.All around me is calm. I breathe.A poem blooms from the leaves. Kim M. Russell, 6th April 2025 On […]
Moon-Shaped
On a frosty night, stars careen, blow themselves to smithereens, and drift like snow in a symphony of moonlight. Play as if about to cry, suffused with inspiration: thrum strings of a moon -shaped guitar, pluck notes like butterflies, bones and birds. Chords have their own tongue. Words are not required, only the silver tunes […]
The Christmas Painting
He disappearedto who knows where, and I didn’t find out until Christmas Daythat he’d been to buy a painting. The woman looks like me,pushing my old bike through the gate of our red-brick cottage,in my long black coat. Greeting me in the garden, is the goatI always wished I’d had, a cat, crowsand the little […]
At last
April has arrived and we can open windows,breathe in grass-green scent and offer our skinto the sun. Daily walks are more comfortable,less chance of slipping; still we go slowly, handin hand, step to step, grinning at yellow facesof daffodils and primroses frilling up the verges.The piebald horse is at the top of the paddock.He shoves […]
I, Poet
I need to ease the itch of wordsthat wake me up at night,to sing in a different languagewith imagery and bite. I love to linger in poems whereno other poet has been yet,to feel a smile inside myself when other people get it. The poetichor of a poemcan drive me to distraction,like spring blossom dancingor […]
Hejira
When the wanderer returns,what does she bring you?The skull of a bald eaglepicked clean, white and flightless.You call it Icarus,and wax rolls down like tearsas she writes you epic songsabout the refuge of the roads,and you think she’s finally home,but her mind is constantlyon travelling, travelling, travelling,a personal odyssey,not a false alarm. Kim M. Russell, […]
About Pigs
Don’t believe lies about pigs in muck;today’s pig is not tomorrow’s bacon;and don’t expect me to bring good luck. I love to swim in a cool clear oceanbeneath azure skies and gentle cumuli;most nights I’m tracking stars and planets – I really don’t like to boast about it unduly –I pride myself on my excellent […]
Cyclorama
Nature creates her own panoramicmural on the inner surface of my mind,and I am immersed in a manicexplosion of life in forest, garden, orchard,overflowing with the language of spring.It is no April Fool’s trick.A tunnel of branches,punctuated with lime green buds,leads me into the wonder of Mother Earth,a cyclorama of birth and rebirth. Kim M. […]
From Vienna to Bratislava
My husband and I have been to Vienna numerous times. It’s a home from home. We know our way around, where we like to eat and drink, and the places we love to visit. We had been on a boat trip around the city but not on the main stretch of the Danube – which […]
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer
She was a woman painted in oilagainst a glittering of gold leaf,one of a number of beautiful,wealthy, bourgeois Viennese.She became sacred and magical,posed on a golden chair, mergingwith the golden geometricalpatterns of her dress, almost fadinginto the canvas, not theatricalbut melancholic and aloof,one could say vulnerableamong triangles, eggs and eyes. Kim M. Russell, 31st March […]
writing in north norfolk 