The salt marsh fadesbeneath sky tinged with grey and a violet obsession. Wielding its thunder-axe,the storm’s hooves skid and the sky cracks fusing the horizon. Dandelions spatterverges, thirsting for some pitter-patter while I insist I’m right as rain. I’m ready to bravea nor’easter, given the promise of a stormy day and rainbows impossible to follow to their ends. Kim […]
Tag: NaPoWriMo
Life Coach
I struggle to rearrangethe furniture of my own life,emotions are too heavy to lift. Even the dust bunnies hidingbehind the sofa are laughing at me. I give throwaway advice,take none in return,misunderstand the art of feng shui,the importance of decluttering. My thoughts are so jumbledI can’t fit them into boxes,and they spill across the floor,tripping […]
Always a Poet
Neat and tidy, they played together,pouring invisible tea from a tiny teapot,serving imaginary sandwiches to dolls. I sit on the staircase of memory, digdeep into the toybox of the past and pull outbooks and a snot-filled tissue of lies. My sisters’ childhood was free of tears and worry.They never saw my mother’s bloody nose, nevercame […]
April Fools
i sun-sprinkled birdsongcracked joke of an empty egga fledgling’s first leapblown off course by spring wind’s roarmorning’s still dust-tongued with frost ii a purple floweramong drooping daffodilsstirring frozen heartsskin like petals unfurlingfeels the cold brush of winter Kim M. Russell, 1st April 2026 It’s the first day of the month and NaPoWriMo begins its poem […]
As a Child Listening to Ella Fitzgerald
Satin and velvet tonesbroke through the crackleof a seventy-eight on my parents’ turntable,crooning and scatting like a flock of birds.Ella’s voice, a warm hug, skippingthe melody or drawing out emotion like the dripping strand from a spoonof honey.She bent and spun songs I’d heard delivered straight on the radio, dry,gave them souls and made them […]
Time to Say Goodbye
February frost petals frozeonebyone, brittle tears of ice. Their shards pierced my heart,knowing that I had no partin your funeral, except I wrote a poem and read it out loud,proudto be your daughter. I blew my nose,tried to expel the bitter-sweet notesof Andrea Bocelli (not my choice) that reminded me that it was timeto say […]
Nocturne in Grey and Gold: Chelsea Snow
Artists capture fleeting moments,but their impressions might remain for ever. Thus we feel the chill of snow and night air.We’re drawn from here to there,towards warm light. The shadowy figure crossing the bridgeappears to stumbleor slip on the icy pavement,drunk perhaps.We cannot see his face,but he seems determined,late for an assignation, angry, seekingcompany, or is […]
Turnstone Sonnet
On such a day, to be beside the sea,immersed in seafoam rolling up the shore,and no one walking on the strand, just me,inhaling nature’s power, nothing more.Along the coast, the turnstones dip their beaksinto seaweed, fish bones and broken shells;like Sisyphus, they push and shove and tweakat pebbles brought in on the ocean’s swell.I’m not […]
Immersed
The music has the cadenceof a wind’s caress;it conjures up a far-flung sea,where blues fluoresce,salty waters lap endlesslyon fragments of ancientPersian tribes, inhabitedby turtles, gulls and terns.It carries an echo of stories,the creak of a wardrobedoor to a magical world,a princely name from childhoodfantasy. Dust and disquiet,drum beat and euphony,one note evolves into polyphony,floating in […]
Party Piece
The years roll back, forty, forty-four,to someone’s kitchen, somewhere in Dublin, where the cider’s flowing, there’s Guinness and more,guitars are tuned, and the girls are gathered in. We’re smiling, Rita and I, sitting on the floor,enjoying the music, voices rising and falling. It’s a proper session, everyone joins in,but it’s fallen quiet. “Come on,” someone […]
writing in north norfolk 