Clay is moist in their hands.They probe it with damp fingers,feel resistance until they simultaneouslythrow it on their wheelswith a wet thud. Percussion. The rhythm of the kick wheelgives them impetus to kneadand sculpt, and shapes emerge, breathingtogether with their creators,merging into a breeze. A windy symphony. Each pot has its maker’sfingerprints, though pots strivefor […]
Tag: Tuesday Poetics
A Poet’s Nightmare on Elm Street
Whatever you do, don’t fall asleep, or poetry will follow you. Light slices through darkness, where poets encounter the unexpected. Imagery lurks in corners of dreams like monsters underneath your bed. Elm Street might be shady but, like mushrooms, poems need darkness to sprout. And poets, there’s no point in cowering and […]
Lifting the last potatoes before first frost sets in
After weeks of rain, the allotments gleam;in a month or so they’ll sparkle with a frosty sheen. Groups of men huddle, boots covered in muck,cocking an ear as they lift them with a suck. It’s about time that they got down to workand, grabbing their buckets and trusty forks, they set off to their individual […]
Haunting Aimlessly
The antiquities museum is bereftonce all the visitors have left, until October moonlight breaksthe darkness, shaking halls awake. He sits upon a muzzle-less horse,the rider’s lost his head of course. He cannot ride, dismount or stand,he has no legs, feet, arms or hands. Moon-bathed they start to come alive,horse and rider spectrally strive to canter […]
Feeling October
October days are feeling softer,the day beginning with scarves of mist and dewdrops, the sky now grey and filled with raindrops and the leaves like chameleonschanging from green to yellow to orange to red.A fleet of tractors rumbles up the muddy road rattling the windows. First wood smokedrifts skyward with the chattering crows. Kim M. […]
Norfolk Paddle Songs
My paddle sings a song of gnarly bankside roots,of snagging water lilies and bulrushesof gurgling, drips and splashes. My paddle sings a song of stately swans,of graceful grebes and other waterfowl,of agile otters and shy water voles. My paddle sings a song of riverside pubs,of cottages, farms and windmills,of flat landscapes and a dearth of […]
Don’t Worry
There is no art to happinessit just isa big surprisea giggle from deep in your soul. Don’t worry.You don’t choose to be happyit just happens sooner or latera happy accident. When you stumble on happinessembrace itgive it a big sloppy kisschoose it over everything else. Happiness will not pass you byit will linger a whilelike […]
Le Bateau-atelier
In a quiet place of greens and greys,of rippling reflections and pensive days, a place to muse on form and shape,in the changing light of the waterscape, the river’s fringed with leafy treesthat tremble in a gentle breeze and waver in the flowing riveras if reflected in a mirror. In the solitude of his atelier,the […]
Rummaging
“Rummaging in our souls, we often dig up something that ought to have lain there unnoticed.” From Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Digging deep into the handbagof my soul, I find a snot-filled tissueof lies, a childhood fraught with tearsand worry, my mother’s bloody nose,coming home from school on my ownto find a locked door, […]
Spilt Secrets
Shadows have been eavesdroppingon my dreams, sharing them everywhere,so now all my ancestral ghostsknow my hopes and fears. They have revealed the knots that burrowedin my heart and made a nest there,whispered unwritten poems and thoughtsthat I wasn’t ready to share. But, instead of wrestling coils of anxiety,I’m humming to a muffled moon like I […]
writing in north norfolk 