On the rooftop, sparrows twitter, peering quizzically from the gutter; they flurry feathers, swoop and pirouette, dodging in and out of privets. Peering quizzically from the gutter, they carry bits of twig and moss, dodging in and out of privets to patch and line their new-built nests. They carry bits of twig and moss and, […]
Tag: Open Link Night
This Poem is a Hill, Indigo Water and Whiffling Geese
This poem is a distant hill. This poem is a welter of indigo water. This poem is geese whiffling overhead. This poem is a rolling, breaking wave of corn the colour of honeycomb, washing against the grassy spine of an ancient sleeping dragon, a landslide washed green. This poem is a distant hill. This poem […]
Outstaying our Welcome
“You are a guest of nature” (Hundertwasser) boots crush vernal grass and clover barley heads droop the once living quilt of meadow has shrivelled up and died and the earth shivers with fear as the sun climbs ever higher above the blasted pasture of the biosphere while humans bandy words like ‘zero tolerance’ they neglect […]
Tumbledown Shed
Weighted with ivy, tessellated with lichen and moss, the roof has splintered and caved in. Perhaps something has settled among the long-forgotten tools and pots – now homes for mice and spiders. Our sentinel by the rickety gate sheds flakes of peeling paint. The padlock key is long gone and its treasures remain hidden. Kim […]
Words and Feet
We welcomed them eighty years ago from the shadows of the night of broken glass to the streets of Britain and beyond, child refugees, hungry and scared, in need of homes. History should not be allowed to repeat itself; it’s our turn to act, to learn from the past and protect children fleeing conflict and […]
Promise
We are dazzled by brightly coloured lights the silver, gold and white, hanging above the busy street. Sparkles drip from trees and eaves – even the traffic lights flash with Christmas cheer. Above us, the sky is goose-feather grey, our noses sting with icy air and below our feet the path echoes with winter’s forge. […]
And not forgetting the mist
If I should forget you in the mist of growing old I’ll remember to grasp that mist and not let go. I’ll weave the threads between my fingers, tie knots to help them linger just a little longer to remind me of the autumn mist along the coast and the first time we kissed. Kim […]
Coastal Terzanelle
The coastline is a rugged spine of cliff, its rocky ribs fall and rise with each breath of wind and wave that shifts the distant skiff. Its feet stand firm and solid in the depth of salty water tugging at its bones, ribs falling, rising with each breath. The tides have loosened roots and bits […]
Back from the Deep
A word wrestles between twisted lips, eyes are sunken like two wrecked ships and her nose erupts from a festering face. Dragging behind her a fisherman’s net, hauntingly humming the Flower Duet, she staggers along the pitch-black shore. Studded with limpets and barnacles, lashed with seaweed and pinned with corals, she’s draped in a lacy […]
10th October 1992
(a traced poem inspired by ‘Moment’ by Carol L. Gloor) At the moment of our reunion, I am cooking vegetarian lasagne. No meat, no male scent in this house of females, only the exhaust of distance. I hadn’t seen you in twenty years. I recognised you, the younger you I left behind. I am back […]
writing in north norfolk 