By a river’s boulder-strewn gravelly bed,haiku unfurl in a meadow flecked with dandelions and cowslips. A sonnetfinds a foothold on a face of rock and in fine fissures ballads grow.We smell them in clods of earththat tumble crumbly from the plough;hear them in the songs of birds,trickle of streams and ocean’s roar;taste them in a […]
Tag: Weekly challenge
My Garden Sanctuary
There is nothing neat about it;briars and nettles aboundso thick you use your feet to find some solid ground. It’s a wild jungle for cats and a leafy forest for deer, a green sanctuary. That’swhere I disappear, where poetry is the spin-drift of the green dream, the loose change in the pocket of time; the […]
Tir na Nog
We set up camp on the island, with fires and poteen to warmour skin and the cocklesof our hearts. We danced to the rhythm of the bodhran, sang along to guitars and fiddles,and the rise and fall of uillean pipes’ plaintive songs. The faeries all but laughed at our night-befores and morning-afters, lingering headache hangoversof […]
Holding up the Sky
They fill the earth with seeds and song,their bones and wings need to be strongto bear the responsibility of holding up the sky. They flock above the farmer’s plough,they watch us as we plant and sow,from their aspect up on highwhile they are holding up the sky. The smallest hummingbirds and wrensmake us smile, and […]
Beltane Blues
Between the trees, the sky has fallen through;it has been conjured into nodding bells,Beltane’s all-knowing fairy traps of truth. It’s a Beltane pool, a soft echo of blueto dive into, a deep enchanted wellbetween trees, where the sky has fallen through. In among the trees the magic grewa shivering, shimmering wood of spellshidden in Beltane’s […]
Throw Away Planet
We dream of fishing for stars in the oceanbut, in the cold light of day,there are more micro-plastics in the seathan stars in the milky way. Whole constellations and shoals of fishare caught in the rainbow sprayof detritus uncoiling like whales’ intestinesand landing on every beach and bay. Human’s packaging and discarded netsare evils against […]
Consuming the Planet
Like Earth, so much is round:apple, orange, peach,each with its core, pip, stone,gathered from branch and ground.Sun, moon and planets,all are circular and in orbit.The life of an animal is a cycle:birth, growth, reproduction, death,gnawing flesh and bone with teeth.And poets take their knivesand forks and table etiquette,and consume the planet,regurgitating it back onto the […]
I live by a river
The river wraps around trees,some fallen, some weeping,plays over branches,and twigs, scattering light. Yesterday was full of birdsswooping, diving, chattering,among young leaves;a robin blustered in the cherry, parrying the two-note callof a pheasant strutting amongdaffodils, eager for a matein these early days of rebirth. Today, unseasonal snowflakes meltas soon as they touch the silent earth. […]
Rhythms
All the waves in the worldcrash on canopiesof trees,words lift from their leaves,the air a drenchof citrusand jasmineamid the tumult storm,a slow spring tideof rising seasin sacred landscapes,heard in songs of ghosts. Kim M. Russell (and Brendan) , 29th March 2021 My response to earthweal weekly challenge: Turning Points (Chthulucene Squiggles) Brendan has presented us […]
Magpie Eye
Of all the ancient stares of birds,the one that leaves me lost for wordsis the magpie’s when it looks askancewhile pecking at the grass and plantsin our wild garden. I watch him pluckingworms from muddy soil and chattingin his raucous voice. I tell him not to speak,at least not with a brimming beak,but his shiny […]
