In spring, at the end of my grandparents’ Otherwise tidy garden, I gazed for hours At scruffy clumps of white and purple flowers: Granddad called them honesty, Which puzzled me. I watched their pretty petals perish, Leaving brown paper parcels of seeds, Waiting to be buffeted on a breeze Whose windy fingers would peel away […]
6 am
Six o’clock is muted; A few birds mutter tentatively As if morning is disputed, Unsure of their internal clocks Due to the absent Crowing of the neighbour’s cock. The sky is opaque with autumn mist The colour of an old vest. Hanging from the pinch of plastic pegs, Limp washing drips. Silence sizzles. And then, […]
A Recipe for Insanity
eviscerate and bone me batter and bake me blind take my sweetness to the hard-crack stage and caramelise my mind splinter me brittle with mortar and pestle quadrille me with sanity fine-edged with a sharpening steel from your batterie de cuisine of the surreal Kim M. Russell, 2016 My response to dVerse Poets Pub Tuesday Poetics […]
Aerial Comes of Age
For the eleventh time this year, one of my poems has been published on-line by Visual Verse. It’s on page 14 of this month’s edition, Vol 4, Chapter 02, which is full of fantastic poetry and prose, all based on one unusual image. You can go to visual verse.org and read all the prose and poetry, […]
Little Hunter
I’ve been watching at the window for a little hunter to glide across the garden towards the house. I’ve spotted it in the tall trees and landing on the broken gate, hunting a mouse. Sometimes it steeps razor talons in soil, tugging on earthworms and toppling when they crack. I’m hoping that one morning soon […]
Words are not Required
words are not required music speaks its own language golden tongues of sound Kim M. Russell, 2016 My response to Carpe Diem #1087 String Symphony No. 4 in C minor by Mendelssohn Today we’re letting the music inspire us with Mendelssohn’s String Symphony No. 4 in C minor.
Silenced by Ivy
no flowers remain on the boa of ivy gagging the willow Kim M. Russell, 2016 My twenty-second haiku for the Carpe Diem First Winter Retreat 2016 the kick off – find the silence
Map of Scars
Barbed wire necklaces and stars, tracks of fading scars, isobars connecting moments on the contour map of life: childhood memories of cuts on knees, silvery stretchmarks or the ribbons you made yourself that held in grief when the pain was too much to bear. Kim M. Russell, 2016 Image found on Pinterest My response to […]
Lumpen Nightmare
Mask of clay, damp, lumpen and grey, fills mouth, eyes, ears and wrinkles as it seeps into skin. Thrown on a nightmare wheel, it permits the dusty bogeyman to poke holes in dreams, fill them with ceramic screams. Hands wet with pulling and squeezing sweat, you mould the lump of clay into your own face. […]
Waltz of the Flowers
a Christmas delight memories of spring blossom on a winter night Kim M. Russell, 2016 My response to Carpe Diem #1086 Waltz of the Flowers by Tchaikovsky In this episode Chèvrefeuille hopes to inspire us with a beautiful piece of music by Tchaikovsky and has provided us with a background to the composer as well […]
writing in north norfolk 