We stare through steamy windows on the top deck of the bus,at people walking and waiting in the rain, unlike us,impatient with the crowds and the weather,while we steam in the proximity of bodies crammed together.We open a window to let in some air, and petrichor fills the air,punctuated by a curl of tobacco smoke, […]
Tag: Tuesday Poetics
Life Cycle of a Cardigan
I began as wool shornfrom a sheep, a cluster of cloudto dye and card and spin,and knit until a perfect cardigan was born –colourful, cuddly and warm. When you first saw me I was freshand new, my colours bright.You’ll never know the frissonof joy when I felt your fingers tightin my fibre. And then you […]
Thinking about water while swimming in the pool
I break its surfacefeel its pearls roll down my skinI surge forward pressing palms togetherand in an outward circular stroke feeling the resistance of this chemical compoundfeeling its enormitysensing its presence in my bodyand around the eartha drop eroding s t o n ea refreshing GUSHa destructive W A V Ea treasure troveof pearl and […]
Stormy Sea
It’s a battle between umber cloudin a fiery orange and indigo skyand the raging sea crownedwith frosty foam – gods tossingboats between them like toys. And where are the buoys,the safe places for those thrownoverboard? Who know what liesbeneath the waves, what monsterscircle? Or are the monsters aboardthe ships, ignoring the gods,believing that they are […]
To Steph
My dear,I’ll keep this short and sweet,like you, and the tartes au citron we’d eat,and the wine we’d drink in summer sunon rickety chairs in your garden. We’d giggle, laugh and sometimes sing,and often end up wonderingif passers-by could hear and smile at the love and fun we shared for a while. I missed you […]
A Sweet Affair
An orchard’s fruit and its aromasare laden with sweet memories:a windfall of sparkling baublesor a bird café of dulcet squabblesover worms in russet orbs that endas feasts for feathered friends. Each bite of your acidic sweetnessarouses a harvest of ripe blushesbeneath a tree, under cover of night.‘I am sweet temptation in moonlight,’your apple breath whispers […]
Random Words of Winter
you were a cold crone,Winter, dimming our thresholds –summer’s still a dream a dolorous crowbrings me yet another verse –see how words renew and yet we’re awareof cliffs, caves and salty seathe scent of sun cream *** While winter’s nose is still dripping,one memory will cause us joy,even when it’s getting dark by four: it’s […]
While winter writes love notes again
While winter writes love notes,we hunker down in a world of white. Instead of flowers,storms bring ice in fists. Love can be a monster,scribbled poems in the margins of a frozen puddle,or on an uncrushed flower, yearning to burst into constellationsand dance in green shafts of spring again. Kim M. Russell, 14th January 2025 Image […]
Wordstone
I’m not a light-footed scampereron windswept beaches, however I’m like a ruddy turnstone, my ageingskin freckled and pebbled, turning words like stones and discoveringthe nourishment that I’m seeking: words and phrases, deep as the sea;a pile of eureka poems to satisfy me. Kim M. Russell, 7th January 2024 Ruddy turnstone, photographed by Michael Sammut For […]
Latewood
Swaddles of mistinhabit the darkeningbetween trees.Despite the formingof the darker partsof annual growth rings,still there is a green silence,broken only by the beating of wings,the occasional cracking twig,and the seasonal frostingof branches and the grassbeneath my feet.Notwithstanding the ache for spring,I’m listening yet. Kim M. Russell, 10th December 2024 Image by Drazen Nesic on Unsplash […]
writing in north norfolk 