The unborn sleep and waketo their mothers’ heartbeatswith flares of dawns and sunsets. Expectant with gentle curves,fields are still blotched with snow,while limp and drowsy meadows transform into the smoky greenof seeding grasses and flowers,patches of shifting light and colours bound together by an invisible umbilical,dewy cobwebs and the hum of early bees –there are […]
Tag: Weekly challenge
Waiting for Worms
After rain, the snow has melted;in hedges and by the roadside,beer cans, plastic cups and wrappers explodelike mutated flowers and, in isolated places,fly-tippers’ gifts of mattresses and fridges are exposed. On the other side of the world,rare creatures perish, some with pelts,horns and other parts removed,waiting for worms to consumethe vestiges of their existence. Humans’ […]
We are not all white stars
We are not all white starsthat fell from the sky. Some of us are amber and lignite,we never sparkle or ignite. We are beige and tawny yellow,ochre, black and brown. We are the colours of desert,sun-burnt grass and earth. I am a lion proud and wild,Mother Nature’s regal child. Kim M. Russell, 8th February 2021 […]
Candlemas Vow
In the moody half-lightof the Imbolc landscapebetween birch, ash and oak,there’s an unspoken oath. Brassy hazel catkins shimmer,lemony lamb’s tail buds glimmer,and there’s a gleam in Candlemasbells’ nodding waxen flowers. Everywhere, for the first timethis year, is the vow that temperatures will climband imbue everythingwith the welcome scent of spring. Kim M. Russell, 1st February […]
Holme
It sounds like home. It’s a morning walk on a Norfolk beach,wind strewing salty seaweedlike hair on a northerly breeze. The flatness hid the traces. It was a sea henge with an upturned oak stumpat the centre of a Bronze Age ring of trunks:fifty-five split and ancient hearts of oak. And hearts were split. Some […]
Poems in the Frost
At the break of a chilly day,when the ghostly winter-greybark of beech trunks glintedin the low sun, I squintedand found, written in the frost,as if they had recently been lost,a scattering of words: poems scratched by birds,the cursive trail of a snail,the imprint of a pattern of ovalfox pads, toes of mole and mouse,just outside […]
This Isle of Noises
The corona virus has all but silencedthis isle of noises,masks have muffled our voices,damp squibs at the festival of light. Unmasked revellers light bangers and screamers,sparks of hope for dreamers,while Caliban sobs in a cornerover glasses drained of wine. Kim M. Russell, 28th December 2020 My response to earthweal weekly challenge: A Feast of Earth […]
Pandemic Bell
This year the bells have lost their hammers,no call to Christmas mass or carol service,just the silent ring of frost and the corvid’s clamourbefore it pecks the unseeing eyes of a much too early lamb. No jingle of shop doorbells, no one-horse open sleigh,just the tinkle of baubles on Christmas trees,the twinkle of lights in […]
A Change of Mind About Sharks
After years of needless fearof creatures I will never face,I’ve had a change of mindabout sharks being dangerous,blood-crazed and murderous. Last night, I watched a programmeabout the wonders of the deep,and marvelled at the pyjama shark,a stripy type of cat-shark (you know how I love cats). It lives on the bottom of the ocean,among kelp […]
Approaching the end of the year…
empty landscapes are waking up:weak December sun glints off frailwebs; frost sparkles in the sweepof headlights; we follow the trailof ancient sages in search of gold,frankincense and myrrh, in taleswe repeat so Christmas can be sold. Now, opening the advent doorsamid lighted candles and Yule trees,we cannot shake a sense of awe.Come New Year, we […]
