Stave 5 Elisa embraced each of her brothers, Calling out their names, laughing and crying, While they told about their wicked stepmother: How she had turned them into swans Only as long As the sun shone; At night they returned to human form, Finding firm ground At sundown Or they would fall from the sky […]
Tag: Poems
Grandmother’s Comfort
My response to Jane Dougherty’s Poetry challenge #18: Echo verse In a pot on the kitchen windowsill Daffodil Basking in the weak spring rays Days Of brightness lie ahead Spread Like the table cloth where Grandmother’s sitting Knitting Unravelled jumpers into a patchwork blanket Comfort At the end of life’s storm Warm © Kim M. […]
Ghost in the Room
My response to dVerse Poets Pub Poetics – Room With or Without a View My five year old self sits on the toilet, The door open on the short landing Peopled by shadows from the skylight; At the end of the twilight, The room behind the closed door. In the sunlight That escapes from the […]
A Kiss from Heaven
My response to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Heeding Haiku With Chèvrefeuille – inspired by a quote from one of my favourite artists, Friedensreich Hundertwasser In muddy puddles Every crystalline raindrop A kiss from heaven © Kim M. Russell, 2016 Image found on Pinterest
An Audience of Darkness and Shadows
Another one that failed A pane of stained glass in the ornate dome Is splintered by a single ray of sun, Ghost light of a derelict hippodrome: Music hall of burlesque and grotesque fun. The eerie spotlight pans the vacant stage, Traces phantom footprints in years of dust, Picks out shambolic sheen of […]
The Modern Prometheus
I have been lucky to have had some success recently, but it doesn’t make rejections any easier. I entered this poem in a competition with the theme of ‘monster’, but it was not selected. A cold northern breeze Tumbles down the street And the ashen sun Slips below buildings Scribbled in coal and […]
American Paradox
Those lovely people over at Visual Verse have included my poem on page 89 of their anthology of poetry about the Grant Wood painting American Gothic. Here’s a link:http://visualverse.org/images/grant-wood/
Surrealistic Sleepwalking
My response to MindLovesMiserysMenagerie Photo Challenge Clean up It’s well past midnight And not yet dawn Under the light And the auspices of the moon In the surrealism of a town square Insomniacs and sleepwalkers are at it again Shopping for dreams And cleaning up their minds, unaware That they are poster people Shiny […]
Emperor of the Northern Wastes
My response to MindLoveMiserys Menagerie Writing Prompt #146 “The Emperor” Luis Royo Emperor Of the northern wastes Of snow and ice Hot springs and bubbling pools Is nobody’s fool Sovereign of silence and steam Echoing below his feet A jet of water Hisses Erupts And crystallises Around the royal seat © Kim M. Russell, 2016
Ardour of the Wind
My response to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie B&P’s Shadorma & Beyond Song That Luc Bat A brisk breeze blew clouds aside Revealed an expanse of wide Delicate China blue Waking trees from hibernation Celebrating creation In a brief spring flirtation Coy daffodils struggled Against the ardour of the wind © Kim M. Russell, 2016
writing in north norfolk 