Once in a lifetime,maybe twice, but no more,you realise that you are turningfrom growing to giving back:ripening. The fruit, grain and light know.Your body knows from the settlingin your chest — a quiet pause,in which you’re not quite readyto let go. Everything ripens:wheat, corn, apple, tomato,sunflower. Even a poem. Kim M. Russell, 18th August 2026 […]
Tag: dverse Poets Pub
Never the Bride
Breda stands in a sumptuous hotel room, an ivory-coloured wedding dress pressed against her body like a lover. It is so full of frill and flounce that it feels alive, and the iridescent image swims through a mirror that flows and reflects her pale face with its newly-plucked brows and made-up eyes. There are flowers […]
Sky at Night
We did not walk hand in handbeneath the night sky, nor look upat the menagerie of stars or findour own astrological map, or crabs and fish swimmingamong planets. Neither did we seelions stalking goats, hunters wrestlingbulls and rams, horses running free. What we saw was black velvetcushioning stars like diamonds,winking eyes of those we have […]
Something in the Air
I can feel it. Thereis something in the air,a change in temperature,in the breezeand the trees,that tells me summerwill soon be donningits mourning cloak,while I celebrate,a fiery skipper,the autumn leafwith its lustrous copper.I’ll write a sonnet on a rusty-tipped pagebefore making my autumn pilgrimage. Kim M. Russell, 4th August 2026 Merril is our host for […]
Journey
Next Monday I will be celebrating another milestone in my life journey, my seventieth birthday, with my sister. This entails a journey to the Isle of Wight, via Hastings, where we are meeting up with two friends I have known since I was eleven years old, one of whom turned seventy in March and the […]
Peach
Summer is nearly over when it comes tofruit, especially peaches. We thinkthey are so ephemeral that wemust keep them in the fridge so we candelight in their fuzzy beauty until we eattheir shimmering flesh, swallow apink and golden sunset.We declare ourselves convicted,guilty of a crime as old asLilith — sharing forbidden fruit. Weknow what we […]
Tiger in a Tropical Storm (Surprised!)
They brought brushes, paints and canvas,so that he could spend his sacred leisurein the light, truth and happiness of paintinga surprised tiger and other wonders of nature.When I extend my gaze beyond the vivid huesof yellow, orange, red and tropical verdure(I’ve looked and found hardly any blue),I am thrilled by the way Rousseau capturedthe movement […]
As a Bird
Oh, to beas carefree as a bird:to hop,to fly and soar,and sing with a melodic trill;a morning birdsharing the wordupon a windowsill,in a bush or on a branch of a tree,just being carefree,being me. Kim M. Russell, 27th July 2026 This Monday at the dVerse Poets Pub we are quadrilling without a care in the […]
A Whiffle of Geese
From the melting mist on a distant hill,In a welter of water, there’s overhead whiffling.Then from unknown skies, skeins of geese arrive,twisting and turning, climbing and falling. There’s a green wave of a distant hill,It’s an ocean of grass where the breezes sing,And from unknown skies skeins of geese arrive,Twisting and turning, climbing and falling. […]
Simple Treasures
These I have loved:half-light stealthily tip-toeing through gaps in blinds,mottled with shadows; mist and fog that drifts and creepsfrom field to field, muffling the rumble of traffic on damp streets; hues of leaves clinging tightly to autumn trees, the crunchunderfoot of those already fallen; lacy cobwebs wovenacross garden gates, strung with diamond drops of dew,sparkling […]
writing in north norfolk 