Beethoven shoutedhis incomprehensible joy,a wind that daredthe whole worldto dance helter-skelter,glitter on the river,to dance as melody,irresistible harmony,a symphonyto nature’s inhuman splendour:the gust,the tide,the breaking vinein the figure of a dance. Kim M. Russell. 7th January 2021 My response to Poets and Storytellers United Weekly Scribblings #51: Looking Back and Writing Forward, also linked to […]
Tag: Poets and Storytellers United
Mother’s Milk
A staid image of a placidwoman dressed in blue,only hands and face exposed,no crown bejewelled,your child swaddled:this was how I thought of you. I didn’t know the churchimagined you as tripartite too:royally dressed in ermine and silk,breast exposed, a womanof human flesh, blood and milk,miraculously still a virgin. It wasn’t you the angels preserved,but the […]
This Is No Swan Song
Down in my bones, I feel that this yearhas not been our swan song.Though the waves came higher,and broken reeds were flungacross an uneven path,we were dazzled by sun-flecked tides.With the coming of winter,something else haunts the landscape:a swan drenched in mud-scent,alive with the tang of the river. Kim M. Russell, 16th December 2020 My […]
Mysterious Landscapes Troiku
mysterious landscapes rise and unfold before my eyes worlds of clouds Chèvrefeuille mysterious landscapes windless rain among the trees misting my glasses rise and unfold before my eyes hills grey and invisible a foggy haunting worlds of clouds dark shadows until a break reveals honey light mysterious landscapes everything brown and silver flickered with leaf […]
From Air to Earth (and different kinds of black)
Tongues of white misttangle with trees and bitter-sweet scent of leaf-rust tumbling into the obscurityof tantalising humus,from Titian hues to Vantablack, to outer space and back. Kim M. Russell, 9th December 2020 My response to Poets and Storytellers United Weekly Scribblings #49: A B C D E F G … After focusing on words recently, […]
Nude Study in Yellow
Her outstretched arms are fluid,drenched in golden liquid,legs immersed in shadowedmovement, feet flexed,ready to run. He wipes the brush,dips it into cadmium. Are these broken linesin shades of bananaa sun-filled visual love poemor a jaundiced portrayalof love gone lemon-sour? Kim M. Russell, 6th December 2020 A failed submission shared with Poets and Storytellers United Writers’ […]
This Blursday
I will drift betweenrooms and their limited viewsfrom book page to screen from sink to counterbottom half in pyjamasand tatty slippers a baggy sweaterwith the sleeves pulled down belowmy frozen fingers radio voicesloud to keep me companythe same old choices keeping tears at bayevery Blursday Kim M. Russell, 2nd December 2020 My response to Poets […]
Grandmother’s Radio
Before I left herfor another lifewith parents and sisters,pop music and Radio Luxembourg,she gave me‘Listen with Mother’ storiesand old songs from the music hall. When I returned, feeling unwanted,she ironed while I twiddled the dial,found midday comedies and quizzes,and afternoon playsfor when it rained. I still listen while I iron,smoothing out life’s creases. Kim M. […]
Canned
I haven’t seen a Campbell’s can for decades, with its boring, old-fashioned label. When I think of all those tomatoes that were crammed inside, I wonder if they‘re out of date, whether they stink, if there’s mould on top, if they have dried out, shrunk, drained of bloody red to anaemic pink spotted with bits […]
Covid Celebration
hesitation before the grip of winter’s chillalmost all the leaves are goneexposing branches to a cloudless skyand pale light of a more distant sun isolation I watch it from the windowcold glass between me and the worlda video call heralds the promiseof a smiling face celebration a Sunday birthday this yearfour decades of being my […]
writing in north norfolk 