Cold, dead and beautifullyblue as the depthsof the ocean,sharks have sinister eyesalmost as sharpas their teethin shady underwater. Sharks sleepwith their eyes wide open.Sharks have no soul;seeing only in monochrome,there is no colour in their lives,not even redin the blood they shed. Kim M. Russell, 15th July 2025 It’s Tuesday and, at the dVerse Poets […]
Tag: Tuesday Poetics
Unbroken
We have our moments, you and I,when we walkon eggshells, sometimes onan expanse of ice.We deal with it,masked with grimaces,a moment fragile as porcelain, and thenit cracks and breaks.I confess to allmy sins, and myfaux pas and silly mistakes.There we are,two sinners un-frozen,and then, inshimmering light, themoon’s magnetism pulls us together, tightin an unbroken lock,cementing […]
The Poet Blames her Pen
Mind a cauldron of chaos,doggerel has made me vomit,it’s bitter and thick on my tongue.Some words give me indigestion. But I love the fruity fragranceof words that saturate my brainlike a sunny day. I see them falling into aerobatics,like flocks of birds delighting in the sky,clapping their wings in applauseas they descend into stanzas,oscillating until […]
Leaning on the gate at the bottom of the garden
framed by leaves,I watch dragonflies rise from the water, where boats bob,chinking their moorings, percussion to the song of the gentle breezeweaving through trees. A distant lawnmower chugs and splutterswith the harmonising engine of a passing boat, the drifting scent of barbecuesand something frying at the local pub. No humans mar the solitude.No voices shatter […]
Bathers
When they emergefrom the water in their soggybathing costumes,their bodiesare like the landscape: dunes and waves, grit and pearls,sand and pebbles, seaside girlsin a rainbow of hues,reds, purples pinks and blues,shivering in the breeze. The lighthouse calls from granite rocks,a chalk stick tall and white,and they sing that songto a summer sky: “I wanna marry […]
Solitude’s Promontory
A found poem uncovered in ‘The Art of Solitude: Buddhist Scholar and Teacher Stephen Batchelor on Contemplative Practice and Creativity’from Maria Popova’s The Marginalian Solitude is an art –we must learn to wait in acceptanceof a moment, of a piece of music, the polyphony of birds, the patter of rain. Alonebefore a sheet of paperor […]
Tree Moon Fox
Chilled to their inner ringsthey wait for spring, intimate winter trees, their unadorned birches, bare,skeletal white trunks shining, chilledfrom icy winds and frost-rilled. Under cover of night,there is white noise, rustle of leaves and distant hum of tyre on tarmac.Overhead the sky sparkles, incandescentwith a multitude of stars, distantand countless. Lying on her back, the […]
Desamor
Do you have the aguante, the heart to fully giveto another human being? You sense the friolento, the long-distance future,stretching to the horizon, and become a nagual, a holder of secretsand longing for what is beyond. And the cenzontle, a wise woman,whispers encouragement in your ear: ‘Keep at it’, she says, ‘don’t give up.’But you […]
Close Up with O’Keefe
How does a curvilinear,abstract frill wrap around a heart of patina,fungus-like, an organic shell? Observe how the primitive waves crash,preserving the pulsing pigment of Persian-red gouache;how the artist’s blood seeped into the underpainting. Kim M. Russell, 6th May 2025 It’s Tuesday Poetics at the dVerse Poets Pub and our host is Melissa, with an ekphrastic […]
Mother
Until I rampaged into womanhoodand found myself adrift on the sea of life, you were a gorse bush flaming through my childhood,golden, scented with coconut, alive. You were my harbour when I shipwrecked motherhood,a beacon when relationships capsized. You encouraged me to be cautious in my adulthood,and always try to see through another’s eyes. Your […]
writing in north norfolk 