We were chalk and cheesebut thick as thieves,haunting the ice rink together:bright smiles in the photo booth;cheese burgers and ice cream floats;sneaking in the bar underagefor rum and coke. We were young, and drunkon our own loveliness,maxi coats buttoned against icy air,dashing through the foyerwith cheeky grins and a waveat red-coated bouncers,embarking on a friendship […]
Tag: What’s Going On?
This gift of poetry
is as precious as the new year’s rainreplaced by silent prayers of frosttempering trees with a white crust it’s as welcome as a new dawnof impossible colours, deep skywashed to breath-taking lucidity it’s the joy of low winter sunlighting up a butter-yellow aconitestill clenched fist-tight it’s the trees’ chill breathof leaf mulch, pine and barkand […]
A Saucer of Rain
Even as it falls from a rowan’s red berries,a ripening myth of the goddess Hebes,saucer ready to collect each dropof liquid life, I smile while I am sopped. Rain in my hair and on my neck, fallingin cool cascading rivulets, soakinga sweater you once lent me in yourgarden in an unexpected downpour. At supper time […]
The Road to Norfolk
Where would we beif I hadn’t driven the road to Norfolk,to our little cottage by the sea? You might not have left,gone to live with your father,leaving me bereft. You might not have takenyour own long road of experience,acquired a faithful canine. You might not have metthe man who became your partner,friend, lover, father to […]
North Norfolk Trees
They cling to flat horizonsonly to be bent and wizened by the north wind’s blastthat steams in from the coast. It sculpts them into humps and twiststhat loom from drifting sea mists as giants, witches and hobgoblins,wild animals and dragons. Here and there they come together,huddling against the weather, hedgerows, small woods, copsesand swathes of […]
The Art of Being Human
This being human is a circus trick.Day after day you perfect your act:a t i g h t r o p e w a l kbetween now and then,a flourish,and then back again,one foot in front of the other.It’s juggling swords,eating fiery words,putting your head in a lion’s mouthand inhaling its meaty breath.It’s the highsand […]
Hagstone
Earth, wind, fire and water, each of them a divine daughter, waged a war on heaven and earth, so powerful that it gave birth to weather-witches, hags and crones, who traded in claws and bones, feathers, fangs, skulls and shells, to strengthen herbs and magic spells. Each bound to their own element, some witches crooned […]
Greening the Mind
Word-bound, I watch the coming winterhaunt the garden, eager to paint it silver. I count the rags of blue sky overhead,topped with grumbling thunderheads, savour the smell of rich black earth, the gleamof gold and lemon, not quite drowning out the green. Trees drip with limpid air this green-gold morninglike words from my poetic pen, […]
That Look
I sat among the guests on bales of prickly straw, the afternoon sun hot on heads and backs, the expanse of Tuscan sky a perfect blue. And so, daughter, were you, perfect in your wedding dress, in your hands a pastel bouquet and single flower in your hair. I admit, I shed a tear, feeling […]
Flourishing
Beyond the castle walls the kingdom flourishes,while old Quixote simmers within, no freedomto seek out maidens or threaten windmillswith his lance. Even Sancho, a redundant serf,has given up, his pot belly ever swellingwith undigested food and unspoken proverbs.Inside the castle, the air stagnates with heroes’breath, while outside nature flourishes. Kim M. Russell, 6th May 2020 […]
writing in north norfolk 