After a couple of months of not responding to Visual Verse, I am delighted that they chose to include my poem on page 41 of the latest issue, Volume 10 Chapter 11. The image by Kitty Harrison x Dylan Sauerwein was an unusual one that inspired amazing prose and poetry, including some by familiar poets, including […]
Winter Portents
By next door’s chicken coop, a fox ghosts pastand, bold with hunger, skims the fence posts,a sign of what is to come. Berries blob like blood on spruce and rowan,old wives’ tales of a turning season,another sign of what is to come. On the sill, in late sun, bask crisp wasp corpses,outside the window, a […]
Turnsole
The gardener was digging in the walled garden when Louisa passed through the gate, tracing with her fingers its intricate metal work, oak leaves studded with acorns. The autumn sun was on his back and his muscles bulged in rolled-up shirt sleeves. She thought, ‘To be pretty for you I have dropped two seeds of […]
Perihelion*
I am at a point closest to it, orbiting the narrative, eager to explore the setting, meet the characters, and find myself falling into The Book of Fire. It has a cover the colours of flames: red, orange and yellow. It is adorned with tears, so sad is the story. The author embraces sadness, loss […]
What’s Going On?
Each walk reveals autumn’s treasures: late blooming flowers, nuts and berries illuminate ditches and hedges, ruby haws stud green leaves, and sunflowers linger between harvest sheaves. August’s visitors are long gone; daughter, son-in-law and grandsons have left a trace of joy behind, and they are always on my mind as I walk the country lanes. […]
The Old Vicarage Gardens
At the tipping point of summer,leaves have not yet turnedand, at the Old Vicarage Gardens,a riot of dahlias continues to burn,their vivid colours and spiky bloomsare not likely to fade too soon,unlike the fading dog day heat. Grass and bark paths yield to our feeton a quiet walk between trees and flowers,disturbed only by the […]
Sliver of a Smile
She smiles a satisfied sliverat the burgeoning bountyof hedgerow berries:deep blue bilberries,shiny blackberries,scarlet hips and haws.The scent of summer has fadedalong with the tarnished rose blooms,leaving a fruity sweetnessand the tang of a blue moon. Kim M. Russell, 4th September 2023 Image by Gina Hamm on Unsplash I’m hosting the Quadrille over at the dVerse […]
Last Morning Before Autumn
Three o’clock finds me up early,unsettled by hoots, shivery calls and a swirlyglittering dome of stars in obsidian sky. Pale clouds wisp across fathomless darkand an owl magically curves an arc,low and slow, before it lands on the bark of an ancient tree. And then there’s me,face pressed against cold glass to seewhat I can […]
Fragile Bonds and Lipstick Smears
Deceived by a cancerous two-faced moon,I believed in the thickness of blood –until she broke the fragile bond of sisterhood. Nothing can stop these grief tides,the splash of sorrowand its constant ebb and flow. In the density of salt water,on the tempest of my grief,my heart is tossed like a leaf. With her glossy slick […]
writing in north norfolk 