We are trapped in the revolution of the earth around a fiery star. We rise with it, praise its bright light and heat, let it guide us from afar, and when its radiance is spent, all that’s left is its phantom, pale and lunar. Kim M. Russell, 17th April 2023 Image by Jordan Conner on […]
Thoughts on a Quince
ancient symbol of Aphroditewho took a fruity biteto perfume her kiss pregnant with creativityready to give birth to poetry a foam of spring flowers unfoldswhile autumn’s orbs are goldpear-shaped and aromatic pregnant with creativityready to give birth to poetry through branches sunlight glintsoff a quickening quincecreating a floodlight of fruit pregnant with creativityready to give […]
Time Not Passing
It is not a wild clock vowing vernal explosionor a dog day gilding the fields with harvest. It does not melt in summer heat’s contusiononly to wallow in its ancientness. It’s not flamboyant mushrooms on a rotten tree,a decomposing meadow of rain-soaked hay, autumn’s brittle leaves scurrying on a breeze,or a grieving sky at the […]
Just Like Her
I was five and struggled to understand the relationship; she was cousin to my mother but only a year older than me. Why couldn’t I stay tidy, just like her? Why couldn’t I keep clean, just like her? She had hair ribbons, shiny shoes and a music box with a little ballerina. I wanted one […]
Message in a Bottle
his poem a bottle blue glass glittering in the sand washed up on sea swell salt and power ebb and crash on a distant beach buried in sediment until a girl’s bare foot stumbled upon a jewel hidden well among stones and shells its tattered label washed by the tide the message inside cryptic and […]
Classic Joke Poems
Poetry Reading A haiku, a sonnet and a balladwalk into a bar. The barman says to the ballad,“If this is some kind of reading,chap, book the pub next door.” Dyslexic Poet Haiku (please excuse the political incorrectness) dyslexic poetwrote a depressing sonnetit was a mope dyslexic poethas trouble with syllables‘Hi auk!’ Doctor, Doctor I went […]
Why Spillage?
Why did you ponder on that daythat started with a shower of rain?You could have started with a rayof sunshine and then waylaidus with a downpour.Just saying. Why did you have to go on aboutthe many hues of green and shoutthe praise of buds that sproutand burst with leaves, withoutconsidering the soil?I’d like to know. […]
Spring Spillage
The day had gone from rainback to bright and dry again,and so we ventured out. So many hues among the greenof fresh new buds and leafy sheen,it made me want to shout out loud, when suddenly the firstbutterfly seemed to burstout of a leafy cloud, not primrose or even daffodil,but the colour of an accidental […]
The Memory of What You Were
‘The memory of what you wereis beginning to fade,’the man on the radio said,his voice fadingand crescendoingwith a turn of the dialor a wave of the hand. ‘Time moves around quick,that’s what I find,’said the man on the radio.But at mid-day it is so slow.I imagine him sitting downto ponder on things from the pastthat […]
Spring Fever
Spring seems to have arrived with abandon, the air full of birdsong sparkling in the early April sun. I imagine the boisterous hisses, honking, hoots and whoops of geese, barn owls and swans, birds that mate for life, busy renewing their marriage vows. I think of humans preoccupied with weddings in a season bursting with […]
writing in north norfolk 