I search all round the garden; she wasn’t in her bedroom or the den, not lurking in the ghostly shadows of the infinite corridor. I cross the lawn, enter the copse behind the hedge covered with yesterday’s washing: sheets, pillowcases pinned to twigs instead of using washing pegs. Branches rustle, I hear giggling from the […]
Tag: Imaginary Garden with Real Toads
Sprig Spell
I build the spell with witch hazel, a woody frame to brighten gloomy days with spidery flowers in sunset sprays, sublime with spicy scent. I bind the spell with tendrils of evergreen ivy to ward off evil spirits, its heart-shaped leaves glossy with friendship and fidelity. I add some sprigs of rosemary to help you […]
Dreams of Fire
In the middle of a hot and breezeless night, I’m drenched in sweat and wrestling with the sheet snaked around my legs. I’m running from a heath fire, purple heather sizzles into burnt sienna and birds explode in showers of feathers, glowing and spitting like fanned embers. A sharp-winged dragon skims the hummocks, breathing flames […]
Anguish
Anguished cries of lapwings rise from deep in sedgy fields to sky; their tinny raspings bring to mind an anguish of a different kind: the mewling of a starving child; a young girl’s screams as she’s defiled; a mother’s keening of despair; a grandmother’s calm and care as she sings a soothing lullaby of winter […]
Freed
I remember in 1986 a free concert on Clapham Common when Sade sang. Later, we raised our voices in a chorus to ‘Free Nelson Mandela’. Not long after, he took that long walk to freedom, with dignity and humility, shared his wisdom and showed how one man can unite many. He lived a long life, […]
Choking Nature
Humans record artistic impressions of patient Nature’s handiwork in a line of wind-tattered trees, a blanket hem along the skyline and curving sculptured hills, where skylarks rise from barley singing, and dissolve into the darkening welkin. Hills become shadows, the silence palpable over still-hot fields. And yet, in boroughs, towns and cities, greedy humans waste […]
Muted Blackbird
Quintessence of fluting blackbird’s gone; at sunrise, golden-beaked jet-black throats no longer sing, though summer’s in full swing. Kim M. Russell, 15th July 2018 My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Fussy Little Forms: Tricube – also linked to Poets United Poetry Pantry Marian is back in the Garden this weekend with Fussy Little […]
Harbinger
A glimmer of sky is reflected in its eye, echoing with the raw and ragged corvine caw, reminding us of misty dawns, morning breath of autumn yawns and branches bristling with jet feathers as the harbingers of winter flock together. Kim M. Russell, 12th July 2018 My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Artistic […]
Dragon Hunting
Down by the green and weed-choked lake, among pungent soil and undergrowth, rotting wood, irises and lilies, is the breathtaking kingdom of dragonflies with their large, iridescent eyes and delicate, dazzling, vivid wings, It must be the sunniest part of the day: they need the sun for energy to zip and dart in jerky flight, […]
Morning
Light like fresh linen breezes into morning, pours its luminescence through lacy blinds and splashes sparkles on a sleep-creased face. It’s a dawn blessing, a tea and toast embrace, and a kiss goodbye to night. Kim M. Russell, 7th July 2018 My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Camera FLASH! also linked to Poets United […]
writing in north norfolk 