Just Saying

It’s not just a cup of tea,it’s fragrant steamfrom a porcelain bowl,leaves inside blossoming outside. It’s not just a breath of air,it’s hundreds of yearsof leaves and latewood,Earth’s redemption. It’s not just the sea,it’s immeasurable depthsand creatures as mysteriousas aliens somewhere in space. It’s not just poetry,it’s time scrunched into a balland smoothed out again,words […]

Walking with Colours

Today it rained.I didn’t go for a walk,not even with my brightblue umbrella.it was too greyafter yesterday. I did the ironing instead;all the dark washing,nothing orange, pink or red,which didn’t help.But then I got thinkingabout yesterday: my neighbour’s daffodilsnodding bright yellowin short gusts,and the primroses’ pale frills,the thrustof golden crocuses, and the early quince blossomlending […]

It’s Wednesday

and this is what I know:married thirty-one years,living in a place wherebeauty is everywhere,yesterday we drovefor just over an hourpast the salt marsheson the North Norfolk coast. In an ice-blue skylapwings flash wings;skeins of geese fly overheadand a variety of ducks glideacross the briny water below. It’s a landscape of shiveringbird calls, marsh birds pouringover […]

A Clattering of Sorrows

It began as a muffled splash in a half-flooded field,became chyak-chyak and chattering echoesin the January vacuum,then exploded into black ink,splattering Rohrschach blots against the winter-grey sky:a clattering of sorrows.I counted thirteen jackdaws. By Kim M. Russell, 9th January 2024 Image by Alexei Zaitcev on Unsplash Written on the anniversary of my mother’s death, for […]

Peace Acrostic

Peace can be found in my garden,Except for the occasional tune of a robinAloft in the willow, or the breath of windChilling leafless trees; a reminder thatEven birds and plants need some peace – like me. Kim M, Russell, 29th December 2023 Image by Joseph Watson on Unsplash Susan is hosting What’s Going On? this […]

I love…

a breath of sea air,the wind in my hair,watching a seabird drift off course,then finding its way back home; the rich purple huesof heather, the bluesof sea holly and cornflower,the electric-blue feather of a jay; the loud rumbling purrof my cats, their soft fur,the way they trust me not to movewhen they curl up on […]