Life in the balance: on one side, the sum total […]
Ukai
silver fish tail flaps cormorant stretches black wings bonded by a snare Kim M. Russell, 2017 Image found on Pinterest My response to Carpe Diem #1217 Cormorant fishing (Ukai) In a month all about classical and non-classical kigo (seasonwords), today has shared a haiku by Basho: so fascinating but then so sad: cormorant fishing boat […]
Following the Bird
It was on the Bohemian trail, a hippy journey to her soul, when she met an insouciant bird that flew ahead on road and rail and led her to her illusory goal with never a chiding word. An old cassette of favourite songs in the bottom of her backpack reminded her of friends she left […]
Pollarded
pale birch trunks once stark winter skeletons shimmer in the light – leaves flame in gold and green blazing through dappled shade Kim M. Russell, 2017 My response to Carpe Diem’s Writing and Enjoying Haiku #2 no rules I missed the first episode of the new feature for the ‘weekend-meditation’, which Chèvrefeuille started two weeks […]
A new poem in Visual Verse
Here’s a link to the July issue, Vol. 4, Chapter 9 of the online Visual Verse anthology. You can find my poem on page 32 or you can link directly to the poem, entitled ‘A Tailor’s Bespoke Lament’.
Heron Twilight
The lens of day’s diminishing light freezes in the final blaze of sunset a sky-borne pterodactyl silhouette, whose serrated wings and compass-needle head trail a heron’s gangly legs. Kim M. Russell, 2017 Image found on Pinterest My response to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Saturday’s Mix This week, Teresa would like us to look at silhouettes, which have […]
A Single Sprig
Tangible tranquillity crescendos throughout the day, reaching a climax at dusk. In woody eucalyptus of a sprig of rosemary, the town has remembered me. In its low, glowering skies, swarms of midges and horseflies, my wild memories linger. Kim M. Russell, 2017 wild memories – image by Magaly Guerrero (@magalyguerreroindarkerwords) My response to Imaginary Garden […]
The Bookseller and the Poet
Carla Scott wanted nothing more in life than to own a little bookshop in the coastal town where she’d grown up, between the Firths of Tay and Forth in Fife. Guarded by giants of bridges and hills, the ancestral home of monarchs was comforting and safe, an idyll invaded only by wind and waves, no […]
Wings and Light
Along the beach, birds are returning from the Arctic; waders stop off to picnic in a brightly moonlit stretch of sandy slime: oystercatchers, sandpipers, curlews and snipe. Excited piping and haunting mournful cries follow us home where we are greeted by a kaleidoscope of moths congregating around the halo of the porch light: crumpled leaves […]
Cold Sake
ice cold alcohol burns and tingles lips and tongue hot summer kiss Kim M. Russell, 2017 Image found on bbc.com My response to Carpe Diem #1215 cold sake (hiyazake) This month we are exploring the kigo for summer and today Chèvrefeuille has chosen a classical kigo: hiyazake or cold sake. He explains that sake is a […]
writing in north norfolk 