I’ve stood on streets between tall buildingsand looked at the moonsometimes between their dark shadowssometimes peeking from behind them,and I’ve wonderedif the moon looks the same in Africa,Australia, South America, Japan. I know it looks the samein the villagewhere I live,but thereit sits in skywith nothing tallerthan a treeto play peekaboowith me. Kim M. Russell, […]
Tag: Ekphrastic poems
Rain Woman
Why do you follow me,grasp my hand, pulling constantlytowards a perpetual downpour? I don’t want to drown with you and yourblack felt hat, from which rain spillsin dank cataracts or rills. How does it feel to never dry?Although your fish-eyesare closed, I feel your stare. Slippery as an eel,you swim nightmarishly throughmy restless sleep. I […]
Mother’s Love
My mother’s love is red and gold,the vibrant love of sunset,a kiss before I bid the worldgoodnight. Under the silhouetted tree,the sky the colour of her heart,holding me close, she says to me,“Sleep tight!” Kim M. Russell, 6th October 2026 It’s Tuesday and, at the dVerse Poets Pub, our host for Poetics is Lillian, with […]
Boar Lane by Lamplight
The evening has already drawnacross the town moon-silvered cloudslike a sky-filled eiderdown.Boar Lane is coming to life, crowdstread cobbles that seemto hold on to sunset with the lightstreaming from windows. Like a dream,gas lamps, candles and lanterns brightentice carousers and romancersinto the pubs to escape the long haulof the working day, while dancersand singers are […]
Houses with Laundry
In the suburbs, the sky is muted greys;layered clouds merge with beigepost-harvest fields – a train passes by.Houses are prominent, earthy, weak lightreflecting in windows, the inhabitants’washing strung out on lines like brightbunting criss-crossing the landscape.This is life outside the city, awayfrom Viennese high society, an escapefrom pressures and scandal. The dayis almost over, laundry dances […]
And so…
I emerge, face first,from vertical brushstrokes daubed like a rainstormof bright colours. You might think I’m dressedas Harlequin, but you’re wrong – I am arrayed,dismayed, fighting my waythrough pulsating oiled emotions, scented with linseed,tickled with brushes, waiting to open my eyeson the finished portrait. Maybe I will be finished.Maybe I will recognise myself. Kim M. […]
Le Bateau-atelier
In a quiet place of greens and greys,of rippling reflections and pensive days, a place to muse on form and shape,in the changing light of the waterscape, the river’s fringed with leafy treesthat tremble in a gentle breeze and waver in the flowing riveras if reflected in a mirror. In the solitude of his atelier,the […]
The Uncertainty of the Poet
She tries to see beyondthe contours of the marble torso, the pile of over-ripe bananasand the shadows of the building, to the boats by the harbour wall,the darkening sky and the coming storm. But her thoughts returnto sunshine and shadow, the dimple in the statue’s backsideand the bruised yellow of fruit about to rotin the […]
Close Up with O’Keefe
How does a curvilinear,abstract frill wrap around a heart of patina,fungus-like, an organic shell? Observe how the primitive waves crash,preserving the pulsing pigment of Persian-red gouache;how the artist’s blood seeped into the underpainting. Kim M. Russell, 6th May 2025 It’s Tuesday Poetics at the dVerse Poets Pub and our host is Melissa, with an ekphrastic […]
Optimism
1 An old man struggles along a mass of meltingtarmac, eerie shapes curling through the wall of heat.The town is otherwise deserted, everyonecowers behind shuttered windows, out of the heat. Under an umbrella the old man mumbles “Rain”. Behind their shutters, the whole town’s praying for rain. 2 By the roadside, every blade of grass […]
