The end of year approachesand I am hunkering down, Avoiding the weak winter sun glinting offfrail filigree and dancing on the sparkling frost. Instead of opening advent doorsamid lighted candles and Yule trees, I look back at loved ones who disappearedfrom my life this year and cannot shake the loss. Come New Year, I must […]
A Kind of Insomnia
When everything else is deepin hibernation,I feel a kind of insomnia,wishing I could join bear,bat,hedgehogand squirrel. Instead, I find myselfamong sheeny black corvidsflying inand outof slate-grey clouds,grateful for the occasionalpale blue sky. Kim M. Russell, 15th December 2025 This Monday at the dVerse Poets Pub we are writing quadrilles, those poems of exactly 44 words, […]
Little Wave
She is of water, a female element, a liminal creature,cold-blooded, not quite fish, not quite human,a little wave swimming free. She was curious about the man who bathed in the waterfall,where she loved to sing, a descant tinklingabove the splash and gush. She fell in love with his earthiness, the way his feet were plantedfirmly […]
Zero
a word that rhymes with heroends like a surpriseor an echo oh do the zeros in a millionaire’s bank balance echo? a black hole in the cosmosa cipherholder of nothing nought nil zilch empty does it ever hunger for quantity? Kim M. Russell, 1st December 2025 It’s Quadrille Monday and, at the dVerse Poets Pub, […]
Ode to November Rain
A respite from early snow, it pours from bruised clouds and makes the fields sodden.Drumming against my windows,I hear it in the garden,washing away words that robins have trodden. It gushes in the gutters,punishes the water butt ‘til it overflows. I listen as it muttersrhymes I never wrote—a refreshing respite from the silent snow. Kim M. […]
Numbed by Numbers
I add up the digitsof the date of my birthand come to thirty,my year of agoraphobia. I add up the digitsof my daughter’s date of birthand come to twenty-four,my age when she was born. I add up the digitsof the date we got marriedand come to twenty-six,my age when I was snowed in. I add […]
Before my Eyes
It was my daughter’s 45th birthday on Saturday. Where have all those years gone? No longer a child, she is now the mother of two wonderful boys, and she’s doing a great job. I remember when she was little, I worried so much each time she was ill, fell over, or got upset about something, […]
A Roof Against the Rain (a quadrille)
You’re my roof against the rain,where I’m safe from thunder-grumblesechoing across the sky and sharplightning forks stabbing the earth.Life’s not always a stormy downpour,it can be a refreshing shower.I’m glad that you aremy roof against the rain. Kim M. Russell, 21st November 2025 Today Sanaa is delighted to host Open Link Night at the dVerse […]
So This Is Dilham
There are gulls between the goalson the village football pitch,tugging at lingering wisps of mist,their white wings stark against dirty green. They ignore the jackdaws, yinto their yang, pick at the last daisies,the ones that haven’t been squashedin mud, hoping for a tasty snack. No fish and chips here, too farfrom the coast, no shops […]
Early Morning Walk
We survive the nightand sing into growing light,coaxing the sun to brighten upour early morning walk.Sparkles reflect in puddles and rills;we marvel at how light spillsfrom branches overheadand feet stamp ghostly musicfrom crackly leaves and twigs. Kim M. Russell, 17th November 2025 It’s Monday again, and we are writing quadrilles, poems of exactly 44 words, […]
writing in north norfolk 