I want to confess to every sin that ever was and each day I didn’t think of you but that would not be true. I want to confess to emptiness of heart but mine spills with grief and regret that I did not put up a fight. I want to confess to blaspheming loudly and […]
Tag: The Poetry School
A Poem for a Poet
The words that flow or inch their way from germ of thought to lips, to point of nib, or fingertips on keys, can only be caught if you set them free. They are yours to do with what you will. But when another speaks your words, awake or in the depths of sleep, or writes […]
Quoting Geese
With wing beats eiderdown slow, wild geese create a river, an open sky of feathers. One drops, a stone, a twist and it regains control, stomach up, gliding on its back. A moment of disorder and the unpicked skein weaves into plump finger quotes. Kim M. Russell, 7th April, 2018 My response to The Poetry […]
Shower Curtain
We had a bathtub, simple, with scrolled edge, rack for soap and flannels. The only shower I’d seen was in a chilly row of cubicles, in changing rooms at school and the local swimming baths: pools on the floor, no privacy. A shower with a curtain was new to me. It was pink and pretty-patterned […]
Red Shoes
Heels tapped on the pavement, cracked red patent flashed ’Stop!’ but she could only go despite the pinch on her little toe and the blisters rubbed raw by red shoe leather, lucky pumps borrowed from her sister. No shoes of her own, no trainers, boots or sandals to her name; everything sold to fund her […]
A Victorian Rose
I have an old, brown carved box, daily polished but never locked; the lid is broken and tied with a string but I treasure it above everything. In it I keep little squares of paper, mapped with grey mildew spatter, with hair inside, and a little picture with a saying from the holy scripture, which […]
Against Grief
It sits on my shoulder, craving attention; I try to ignore the surreptitious tears it draws from my soul’s well, and snot green bile so bitter it chokes. It puts up a fence around happy memories; I have to tear it down, time after time, posts and nails, tangled barbed wire. It rewrites stories; they’re […]
Dear Sister
I’m sorry that our path divided and led in different ways; sad that you’ve forgotten the joy of childhood days; disappointed that my words could never melt the ice around your heart – they might have spelt a message you misunderstood. I’m sorry that a shared past is no promise of a future bond of […]
Self-Cento(red)
There’s a chill in the early morning air. Light spreads brightly downwards from the wide fluttering clusters of papery wings, tangles tongues with rain. Anonymous at a timeless hour, pigeons pace like commuters in the station, detect a rhythm, diminuendo of minor notes – no cooing on the telephone wire. A shadow flits ahead. Along […]
Day 28 Spring Haiku
spring cleaning broken cobwebs steeped in dust last year’s memories grey feathers scattered among spring daisies young swans gather April showers confetti blossoms puddle spring promises Kim M. Russell, 28th April 2017 Image found on Pinterest On Day 28 of The Poetry School’s NaPoWriMo prompts, we are writing haiku. Ali doesn’t want us to bother […]
writing in north norfolk 