Like Earth, so much is round:apple, orange, peach,each with its core, pip, stone,gathered from branch and ground.Sun, moon and planets,all are circular and in orbit.The life of an animal is a cycle:birth, growth, reproduction, death,gnawing flesh and bone with teeth.And poets take their knivesand forks and table etiquette,and consume the planet,regurgitating it back onto the […]
Tag: earthweal
I stick these pages together with blue
The blue-tack tucked in the side of the drawer reminds me of days when I listened to your voice non-stop. My younger self wrote your lyrics with a blue ink italic calligraphy pen on index cards; I even copied artwork from album sleeves, shaded in with rainbow-coloured pencils. Leaves unfurled and fell with your smoky […]
I live by a river
The river wraps around trees,some fallen, some weeping,plays over branches,and twigs, scattering light. Yesterday was full of birdsswooping, diving, chattering,among young leaves;a robin blustered in the cherry, parrying the two-note callof a pheasant strutting amongdaffodils, eager for a matein these early days of rebirth. Today, unseasonal snowflakes meltas soon as they touch the silent earth. […]
Rhythms
All the waves in the worldcrash on canopiesof trees,words lift from their leaves,the air a drenchof citrusand jasmineamid the tumult storm,a slow spring tideof rising seasin sacred landscapes,heard in songs of ghosts. Kim M. Russell (and Brendan) , 29th March 2021 My response to earthweal weekly challenge: Turning Points (Chthulucene Squiggles) Brendan has presented us […]
North Norfolk Trees
They cling to flat horizonsonly to be bent and wizened by the north wind’s blastthat steams in from the coast. It sculpts them into humps and twiststhat loom from drifting sea mists as giants, witches and hobgoblins,wild animals and dragons. Here and there they come together,huddling against the weather, hedgerows, small woods, copsesand swathes of […]
Magpie Eye
Of all the ancient stares of birds,the one that leaves me lost for wordsis the magpie’s when it looks askancewhile pecking at the grass and plantsin our wild garden. I watch him pluckingworms from muddy soil and chattingin his raucous voice. I tell him not to speak,at least not with a brimming beak,but his shiny […]
To the young poet of the future
Dear poet, I picture you gazing at a star, concerned that you are still so far from being the poet you wish to become. From my position of restrospection I promise that your journey is the best lesson: you will be buffeted by storms and squalls, fluctuations in the weather of the soul, soothed by […]
Quiet Tights and Masks
After a summer of bare legs in sunshine,I looked forward to a winter woollen-warm with tights, 120 denier thick,soft to touch and clinging to my skin. I ordered an array of face masks, stylish,colourful statements of my Covid fashion,but tights and masks remained unworn.I was required to stay indoors, invisible to all and sundry,in pyjamas […]
Invisible Umbilical
The unborn sleep and waketo their mothers’ heartbeatswith flares of dawns and sunsets. Expectant with gentle curves,fields are still blotched with snow,while limp and drowsy meadows transform into the smoky greenof seeding grasses and flowers,patches of shifting light and colours bound together by an invisible umbilical,dewy cobwebs and the hum of early bees –there are […]
We are not all white stars
We are not all white starsthat fell from the sky. Some of us are amber and lignite,we never sparkle or ignite. We are beige and tawny yellow,ochre, black and brown. We are the colours of desert,sun-burnt grass and earth. I am a lion proud and wild,Mother Nature’s regal child. Kim M. Russell, 8th February 2021 […]
writing in north norfolk 