and it sticks in my throat like a subterranean river in a concrete culvert it hisses like the breeze toothless in leafless trees or chevrons of goose music when what I desire is a speckle of thrush song to fly through open sky Kim M. Russell, 2018 My response to Poets United Midweek Motif: Voice
Tag: Poets United
Frosted Innocence
Morning’s frosty breath halts the world, for just a moment, while we wonder and listen to it whisper. In the garden, birds have left hieroglyphic tracks, secrets that slowly thaw in the lukewarm stain of the rising sun. Kim M. Russell, 2018 A poem for Poets United Poetry Pantry #391
Words
Words are silent until they’re sung or spoken; secrets and promises waiting to be broken. Words in CAPITALS are silent screams; words in clouds are hopes and dreams; emboldened words are emphasised, important words italicised – but all remain silent until they are vocalised. Kim M. Russell, 2018 My response to Poets United Midweek Motif: […]
Cloud Thieves
The garden’s gaunt with February grey, even the grass is dirty this early morning Sunday and the clouds above are murky, drifting ragged ghosts or a witchy hurly burly racing towards the coast. One sudden ray of sun distracts them from their post; light-fingered clouds gather as one, purloin the golden coin and run. Kim […]
Someone Else’s Shoes
I’ve walked more than a mile in someone else’s shoes, suffered painful corns and blisters in my quest to empathise, to see things from other points of view. I’ve danced in well-worn hobnail boots, balanced on purple patent platforms, even worn in a brand new pair of pumps. But I never braved stilettos, and I […]
Throwing Poems
Poems are grenades: we remove the pen, throw them into the world, wait for them to detonate, ducking critical shards, burning with awe at the impact and heat of the words. Kim M. Russell, 2018 My response to Poets United Midweek Motif: Weapon and linked to dVerse Poets Pub Open Link Night. For our motif today, […]
Taming the Wind
“You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery My soul was like the wind, unleashed and flying free, until you claimed me. You wrapped my giggling gales around your hands, span my tornado until I was dizzy, strung up with your kite of love. Now I am hanging from the branches […]
Relief
Time has drawn a relief map, traced contours, filled this skin with flaws and points of reference: dimples, moles and scars, a geography of life, and with it the relief of night-sky freedom and earthy wisdom. Kim M. Russell, 2018 My response to Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Poetry about the Body and linked to dVerse […]
Suddenly a Jay
A dreary winter morning metamorphoses with the fell swoop of a jay, a flash of cobalt among damp fox-brush bracken and berries lit up like Christmas lights left hanging long past Twelfth Night. The garden seethes with moisture but a chink of peachy sunshine spreads its wings and smiles on this January Sunday. Kim M. […]
Open
The door to another year has opened to let me in – or is it out? Chill air wakens my lungs, new and fresh it forces me to breathe deeply, open my lips and sing with the promise of green buds and snowdrops, old friends and new birth. I just have to step out the […]
writing in north norfolk 