Ravens land, obsidian,hacking like old men,and crows’ cries punctuate night again. Rooks argue overhead,and magpies chatter loud enough to wake the dead,as surging clapping wings explode into a raucous, musical river of glossy blackcircling farmland: the birds are back! Kim M. Russell, 20th February 2023 Image by Kevin Mueller on Unsplash It’s Monday and over […]
This Song
Image by Ray Hennessy on Unsplash This song is mist on a distant hill, a welter of water, whiffling overhead. From unknown skies geese arrive with autumn on their wings, twisting and turning, climbing and falling. This song is a rolling, breaking wave of green on a distant hill. From unknown skies geese arrive with […]
Hold My Hand
You don’t need to make big gestures,spend all your money, hand me the moon,photograph or paint me in vivid pictures,or feed me exotic food on a silver spoon. As the Beatles sang in our distant youth,I want to hold your hand. You don’t have to pretend to understandevery single poem I’ve ever composed,take me on […]
The Ghost in the Corner
I’ve had enough of being haunted. It’s not that I’m afraid of the ghost in the corner, but she’s a distraction, especially when I’m reading, writing or watching television. She always has a little smile on her lips and a twinkle in her eye, as if she’s making fun of me. I admit, I do […]
Last of the Wild Places
It is the last of the wild places,drifts at the windy corners,a low, far-reaching expanse. The night was so transparent:mud flats and tidal pools;clumps of bushes made black stains;of human inhabitants there are none. Two black Norway spruces,desolate, utterly lonelywhere the road fell away. Greys and blues and soft greens,fresh furrows in the track.Skies are […]
This gift of poetry
is as precious as the new year’s rainreplaced by silent prayers of frosttempering trees with a white crust it’s as welcome as a new dawnof impossible colours, deep skywashed to breath-taking lucidity it’s the joy of low winter sunlighting up a butter-yellow aconitestill clenched fist-tight it’s the trees’ chill breathof leaf mulch, pine and barkand […]
Wandering
Blood-red dawns and sunsets book-endFebruary days, while our old friends Venus and Mercury (never twinkling)guide us through dawn and evening. The rising moon gazes from afar,envious of the wandering stars that dazzle with their steady lightfrom early morning until night. Kim M. Russell, 6th February 2023 Image by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash De is our […]
If Only
I didn’t realise that one of my poems was published in the January issue of Visual Verse, Volume 10, Chapter 3.
Nellie
She was the waft of lavendergrowing by the front door,a squirt of lily of the valley,and the breezy scent of washing day. She was a little cockney sparrergreeting everyone by their moniker,trilling songs from the good old daysas she polished and flicked dust away. She was the rumble of her shopping trolleyon the broken pavements, […]
Ice Magic
Woken by a wintry dawningof not necessarily unthinkablecolours, the icicle sparkledand dripped from the awning,releasing its magical spell:it had captured the frosty lightfrom the clusters of stars in the nightand now it rang like a tinkling bell. Kim M. Russell, 23rd January 2023 Free image by Rico Van der Voorde on Unsplash Mish says it’s […]
writing in north norfolk 