Category: women

Are you going away with no word of farewell?

 

Mother

Died suddenly

Bereft beyond belief

I mourn her untimely passing

Tears shed

 

Still night

Stars beguile me with their beauty

My heartfelt loss immense

Grief engulfs me

Silence.

 

©Alison Jean Hankinson

This is for d’Verse poetics. It is a reverse cinquain? My song choice was Tom Paxton. “The last thing on my mind”.

Tom Paxton

It’s a lesson too late for the learning
Made of sand, made of sand

It will soon be the anniversary, she passed away in 2008, suddenly without saying goodbye, she was 64, and I was on the other side of the world and didn’t even get home for the funeral. We all feel it still. She was my mum.

 

Beyond the shadows.

Maternal misgivings

Miscarriage numbs

Shades of silence separate us

Sorrow prevails

Suspended in shadows

 

Marriage meltdown

In grief defeated.

Barren and bewildered

Love lies

Dormant in the dust.

 

Test-tube babies

Twin harbingers of joy

Anchored in re-kindled love

Sunshine streams through

The clouds

 

©Alison Jean Hankinson

This is for d’Verse where we were asked to use the word “shade”.

 

 

Witches brew, Lancaster Castle

 

Castle cauldron boiling

Old Chattox caterwauling

Deep in dungeon desperate days

Witches wasting away.

 

John Law was cursed and died

Whilst on the open road

His crime to scorn Alison Device

And her familiar spirit dog.

 

Chattox turned the milk sour

Confessed to killing Robert Nutter

All ten witches tried at the assize

In the court at the castle of Lancaster

 

Witches sabbat

Malkin tower

Death by hanging

We remember forever.

 

©Alison Jean Hankinson

This was for d’Verse we were asked to use verbs and a landscape that spoke to us. Today I was at Lancaster castle meeting up with a friend who is visiting from NZ. This castle is an important part of Lancaster’s landscape and has existed in some shape and form for more than 1000 years. It is the home of the assizes and courts and is part of the Royal Duchy of Lancaster. One of the most famous trials was that of the Pendle witches in 1612, where 10 were found guilty and hanged. The stone was part of a series commissioned on the 400th anniversary to commemorate the witches story. There is a tercet on each stone and they are located around the city.

At the trial the evidence of Jennet Device who was only 9 years old, is believed to have set the precedent for using children as witnesses in witch trials and this was to have an impact as far afield as Salem.

 

Back at you… determined not to be a martyr Lily took the law into her own hands….

I want to serve it back

With a wooden cricket bat

Just one great big thwack

 

Sends you reeling in the rain

I Paddle in your blood stain

“That’ll learn you” I feel no disdain

 

Bat in hand and now it is done

You are forever silenced and gone

Only vile memories of you linger on.

 

There is no post murder remorse

You broke me and ridiculed my flaws

No grief just justice in this final vengeful divorce.

 

Alison Jean Hankinson

This was an accidental poem and I suspect Lily is a distant relative of Fairground Fay. However as I searched for a suitable image of Lily….I came across the beautiful Lillian Gish. She was movie star in the silent movie era, and although she never married, she did have several love affairs, one notorious one with a director called D W Griffith. There were some who declared the relationship to be “an ongoing psychodrama” but I have no real knowledge of this matter. Anyway I feel that Lillian Gish is the perfect image for my accidental revenge poem. Both images courtesy of wikimedia.

lillian_gish_3c04233u

Fairground Fay

img_0348

Fay was away with the fairies

Loves lost dream and high as a coconut shy

She made devil may care seem tame

She made revelling and carousing her game

By daytime she was clean and bright as a button

But lamplight changed her demeanour

like a chameleon she was more of a wanton

One sultry summer night

She got into a fairground fight

And the Police had to pull her out of a fountain.

 

Alison Jean Hankinson

I think I used this one for humour. We were often referred to as POM’s when we were in the Antipodes. Prisoner of her majesty, as many of the early settlers, were actually from the convict ships sent from England. So even though Fay looked very respectful I wanted to share her darker side…

This is for d’Verse poetics. Our theme was mugshots.

 

 

The Pearl in the Oyster

8431066860_807d546330_b

Ethereal moonlight

Bathes the window casement

Teases me with her chaste beams.

 

Opulent flowers

Reminiscent of those blood-red roses

Shed their petals on a dusty mantelpiece.

 

Beautiful memories

Reverberate off these stone bare walls

Rekindle flames in these sad eyes.

 

Love is a sham

Clandestine mausoleum to those pretty days

So I force a smile to suppress my saddened heart.

 

 

Alison Jean Hankinson

 

d’Verse

This is for tonight where we are asked to have a heart by Lillian.

Image from Flickr….entitled-Valentine’s Day jewelry and roses by State Farm.

Original can be viewed here: Roses

 

5 Ways to make it better.

Recognise accept and value the passage of time for all of us

350px-mary_martin_in_the_sound_of_music_by_toni_frissell

5 Ways to make it better-The Julie Andrews Way

  1. Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. Love what you have and all that is around you, the weather, the landscape -nature. Things that are somehow bigger and beyond human.
  2. Brown paper packages tied up with strings. Try giving something as a gift to someone else you care about- a friend, a work colleague, a sibling, a partner- not for any special reason other than to make their life a little more special. It doesn’t have to be expensive- just be done with love and care like the Brown paper package.
  3. Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes. Always enjoy nice clothes on yourself and others. Free the frock..don’t leave it on the hanger because it was expensive or you bought it for a special occasion, let it out…give it it’s moment to be prettiful.
  4. Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes. Be mindful. Treasure every moment for what it is. Feel the wind and the rain. Hear the birdsong and the dawn chorus and recognise it as a moment in your own and others’ existence. Mark it, enjoy its flavour.
  5. Silver white winters that melt into springs. Recognise accept and value the passage of time for all of us. Winter gives way to spring, swelters into summer, mellows into autumn, it has a pattern and a process that is mirrored throughout life and nature.

Lyrics from My Favourite Things- Sound of Music- Rodgers and Hammerstein.1959 Don’t knock it unless you have tried it…The hills are alive….

Image from Wikipedia-Mary Martin and Children in publicity image 1959

Read more: The Sound Of Music – My Favorite Things Lyrics | MetroLyrics

Interior– I was looking at inside my mind, and today it was all quite hopeful….XXX