This year, high summer has cast a tidal wave of rhetorical bullshit. We swim in an ocean of it. It’s smeared over every beach, masking the sweet scent of sunscreen with its bitter stink until nothing’s left of August’s decadence. Sunny holidays disappear into autumn shadows, night falls far too soon, and the stench of […]
Tag: Tuesday Poetics
Bodies
Our bodies unfurl and then curl into each other under night’s cover. We are waves in motion on an inky ocean or sand-blown stones hidden in a desert’s undertones. We are intertwined limbs, hearts, souls and minds, dancing in the dark until we spark – stars falling in the empty sky of morning. Kim M. […]
Meditation on a Leaf
My head fills with chlorophyll, green blood of a mesophyll, as I follow ants and flies on microscopic journeys. Rain-blessed and windblown, leaves leave my mind blown, ecstatic with a peaceful heart, each vein a karmic chart. Kim M. Russell, 6th August 2019 My response to dVerse Poets Pub Poetics: Mindfulness, also linked to Imaginary […]
Woken by a Summer Night
White hot lightning flashes through the blinds, a celestial photographer illuminating crumpled sheets twisted with the lack of sleep. Fiddling with volume control, clouds amplify and dull thunder’s rock and roll, rattling roof tiles and wooden blinds like xylophones. Beside the bed, a glass of tepid water whirlpools with vibrations. Kim M. Russell, 30th July […]
Morning Shift
Together we rise, the bees and I; they fill the drowsy garden with their resonance. A patchwork of shadow among green lungs transforms into a smoky meadow of seeding grass and flowers, patches of shifting light bound together by cobwebs and the hum of bees. Kim M. Russell, 23rd July 2019 My response to dVerse […]
Broken Compass
Vincent van Gogh once wrote: ‘The conscience is a man’s compass’, but humankind’s compass broke and we have lost our way. We are drowning the planet in a mass of plastic, choking the rainforests with palm oil, sitting by and watching as the polar icecaps melt into the background of inane selfies posted on social […]
Eggs and Other Things in Your Basket
From the steps at city hall, the market square resembles a tin of sweet wrappers, brightly striped in sunshine and glistening in rain. A walk between the stalls makes me sea-sick: I roll down the lurching incline, a sometime sailor, bantering with Norwich traders over fresh fruit, fish and flowers; exotic spices, eggs and cheese; […]
One Fine Day
There’s a sparkling space between orchestra and clear soprano voice, a tragic butterfly in a bell jar, bright wings shimmering before she’s pinned. Puccini’s signature violins swirl and an incidental flute curls, a ship’s smoke on the far horizon, as Cio-Cio-San’s dream spills: one fine day, she’ll see Pinkerton climbing up the hill. The voice, […]
Thinking of Prague
A dense morning fog hides statues flanking the river on both sides and wraps the castle in a shroud, hiding its glory from the small crowd that leaves the medieval town to cross the Gothic bridge of stone. We dodge each oncoming tourist, each phantom emerging from the mist, make our way to a coffee […]
Waiting for the Wind
The sky above the fields is patched with clouds; the pale and wild blue yonder gapes through ragged holes, wrestling with purple mist to peep, making promises it may never keep. All the while, the green hill’s spine is stretched out on the far horizon, where it meets with heaven smiling at the steadfast grass […]