skeleton crystals melting into spring rivers last traces of snow Kim M. Russell, 2017 Image found on Pinterest My response to Carpe Diem #1187 unmelted snow (yuki no hate / zansetsu) Chèvrefeuille has reminded us that this month it’s classical spring at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai and all our prompts are classical kigo (season words) […]
New Pond
old pond’s spring water clouding with fresh abundance ripple of tadpoles Kim M. Russell, 2017 Image found on Pinterest My response to Carpe Diem Universal Jane #14 Basho’s “Old Pond” Chèvrefeuille tells us that this weekend-meditation is a new episode of the special feature in honour of Jane Reichhold, ‘Universal Jane’, whose favourite haiku poets included […]
Sugar Daddy
Daddy, you eat all the sugar and leave me bleeding, a blistered foot with no shoe, you do, and I will have to kill and sculpture you into a blue marble statue, bastard, you. You were the universe, the moon my mistress, if I had but known your crazed intent to render me a manless, […]
Friday Night at the Cardiff Novotel
(after Philip Larkin’s ‘Friday Night in the Royal Station Hotel) Light spreads brightly downwards from the wide- screen television between high windows that face the car park, where taxi headlights flare. At the bar, men in short-sleeved t-shirts flash tattoos, down beery dregs and, glancing at the score, jostle in a noisy exit. Receptionists issue […]
M4 Westbound
A slow roll forward. Then a grinding halt. Afternoon is coming to an end and we are still hemmed in by metal. A slow roll forward. Then a grinding halt. Not a sign of an accident and no breakdown on the hard shoulder. A slow roll forward. Then a grinding halt. No emergency vehicles or […]
Ode to a Hug
There are times, left alone with thoughts and memories, when up sneaks grief, a vulgar thief of quietude, squeezes salt and tears from a freezing heart. And there you are, warm as blood, enveloping stony skin, thawing emotions locked within. Kim M. Russell, 2017 Image of statue on King’s Cross Station found on Pinterest On […]
A South London Heaven
Across the football pitch on this side of the rails is wild fennel and long grass: a jungle for snails. There’s a wild damson tree, hawthorn and crab apples, where we lie, you and me, below leafy dapples. In summer there’s sunshine, in winter there’s snow; I love spring and autumn, when trees bloom and […]
Morning Ritual
There’s a purr in my ear the moment she hears me stir. She pats my face with an impertinent paw – I know I have ten minutes more until I’m wide awake, but she insists. She licks my ear, kneads my hair until I roll off the mattress edge, push feet into slippers and go […]
Taste…
buds in mouth and flowers, a saporous feast of flavours: pizza erupts, a volcano of chilli, garlic and oregano; zingy ginger tea cleanses busy gustatory senses; an unripe plum, quite sour, not the buttery-sweet ambrosia of a nectarine or peach, because the riper, plumper ones were out of reach. Kim M. Russell, 2017 Images found on […]
Hazy Moon
a geisha peeking behind a stardust curtain face of the spring moon Kim M. Russell, 2017 Image found on Pinterest My response to Carpe Diem #1186 Hazy Moon (Oborozuki) Today we are working with another classical kigo. Chèvrefeuille tells us that when the light from the Sun or the Moon shines through the atmosphere, it illuminates […]
writing in north norfolk 