The bustle in a mourning house on the morning of a loved one’s death takes away your breath; it’s the solemnest of industries and the sorriest of duties. You sweep up your heart and set your love apart, petrified with the certainty you’ll not use them until eternity. Kim M. Russell, 22nd April 2023 ‘Death […]
Anxiety
My poem won’t do what I want it to. I chew my pen, my nails, my lip and resort to the key- board. No change. Words seem to have lives of their own. They’re off to have adventures, without me, they don’t care about poetry. Yet, they’ve guided me here, to a wordingfount, where poems […]
Strange Object
What is this object, this slab of pulverised fibre that was once a living plant? No life remains here, only cyber inhabitants of a starved planet. Yet here it is: this wad of paper tattooed with ancient symbols, a human record of the signals transmitted far into hyper- space for thousands of years, trapped in […]
The Landing at the Top of the Stairs
My five year old self sits on the toilet, door open so I can see the top flight of stairs inhabited by shadows from a skylight. There’s a closed door at the end of the twilight; escaping from the keyless lock is sunlight full of dust motes that float. I am torn between a monster […]
View from an Open Window
No curtains in this humble room,no fabric flapping on the breeze;a smudge of smoke in the distant gloomand a street devoid of birds and trees. The clouds are tinged with morning pink,a forecast of downpours yet to come;a thought to make my poor heart sinkand resolve to spend the day at home. This view of […]
The Emptiness of War
A city empty of children in a cold, dystopian shell (Janice Turner, The Times, 15th April 2023) At the end of the war, after years of hiding,Bombs had destroyed their homes. Children and mothers returned to a subsidingDystopian shell, to cities of bare bones. Enemy soldiers came, destroyed and, conscienceless,Fleeing the scenes of devastation, they […]
Sun
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 […]
writing in north norfolk 