Beyond the Solar System, in the Cygnus constellation, a hot Jupiter orbits, enormous, gaseous planet of intense light and heat locked face to face with its parent star in space. Colossal clouds of corundum, a ruby and sapphire conundrum of unimaginable tone, are blasted by fickle, violent winds, hot as hell and cool as diamonds. […]
Tag: Open Link Night
Goose Music
Chain-stitching a rosy sunset, geese arrive in a cloud of fieldfares and redwings, a blizzard of snow buntings blown north to south. There’s an explosion of wings, no soaring, no gliding, just metronomic beating and a goose symphony of honks and whistles. The water ripples, in a shower of drops they rise and fade Into […]
Robin Song
On bleak mornings in November, when birdsong is muted and rare, the robin is the only bird that sings throughout the year. In the bleak gloom of winter, more wistful than in spring, a robin’s song is ‘wildly tender’ – Emily Bronte wasn’t wrong. © Kim M. Russell, 2016 My response to dVerse Poets Pub Open […]
One Man’s Kindness in No Man’s Land
Tattered faceless silhouettes Staggered across no-man’s land, Fumbling to attach bayonets, Unkind weapons in shaky hands. Wisps of men blundered in thick of gas Back to the comfort of a mud-filled trench, Eyeless heroes in useless masks Smothering in the toxic stench. One innocent soldier wandering wide, Heading for trenches on the other side, Felt […]
The Lugworms’ Lament
Foam of sun-sparkled morning tide silvers sea-side beachcombers’ treasures: wave-whipped windswept strands strewn with jettisoned jewels, jelly encrusted with shell grit and grains of sand. Brackish bladderwrack, entangled like rubber bands, vesicles gasping, protuberant thyroid glands, flutter flirty flimsy fronds, release gametes in a dioecious dance of fertilisation. All the while we humble lugworms, the […]
Punting on the Cam
My response to dVerse Poets Pub Open Link Night # 177 Gayle of Bodhirose’s Blog was the host for Thursday’s Open Link Night. She mentioned that three of her siblings have birthdays in August, as do I! Mine was on Wednesday and my husband took me on a surprise trip to Cambridge. While the Poets Pub was […]
Remembering my dad
Dad taught me to twist with a towel, skip like a boxer with his leather rope, and give my shoes a sapper’s* shine. Dad and I rode together on the 118 bus, watched Dr No and Goldfinger at Streatham Odeon, and danced to ‘Reach Out’ by the Four Tops. His voice was boxing on the […]
writing in north norfolk 