Exploring the warp and weft of life.
The Sea washes over me
I am lost in yearning
For a time, tide and place
A space of belonging
That once I called home.
Far away dreams
Distant foreshores
Mellow memories of love
As the spirits guide me
On my long journey home.
© Alison Jean Hankinson
This is for the Tuesday platform at imaginary garden with real toads.
Buckets spades and sandcastles
Donkeys on the beach
Paddling at the water’s edge
Family in easy reach.
Seashells on the shoreline
Waves lapping at our feet
Coconut oil and sunburn
Ice cream 99’s for a treat.
Arcade penny slot machines
Grab machines galore
Potted shrimps and cockles in a tub
Mum goes back for more.
Holidays at the seaside
Family fun days out
Car breaks down on the way back home
That’s what summer was all about.
©Alison Jean Hankinson
Grey-haired renegades
Body-popping bimble-bugs
Summer spirits soar.
We were highly entertained on a beautiful summer evening at Brunton Park, Carlisle watching the UB40 Grandslam tour. It was a relaxed affair, every bit old school reggae with some Level 42 for good measures. I suspect the average age of the audience was pushing 50. The beer flowed, everything was mellow and there were smiling happy people enjoying sunshine, good music and a little bit of bimbling bopping…I get auto-corrected every time I try to use bimbling, but it is a word…although I took the liberty of adding to it in my short senryu
.
It was a long walk home and I suspect there will be many had tired and aching feet and a few with added hangover this morning, but it was a welcome reminder of the good natured side of eighties life…there was nothing to prove…no hidden dystopian novellas wrapped in shady riffs, just sunshine and the occasional syncopated rhythm from a trill trumpet or a laid back sax. Reggae on renegades.
Alison Jean Hankinson
Geneology
we lived and died here
Names trickle by,
echoes of the past
Stories unfold
Startling revelations
In the stories we shared
Souls and mortal sins bared
We name our children in their honour
They will echo us forever
In their blood and bones.
Alison Jean Hankinson
This is for Quadrille with d’Verse.
The transition to seaside life has been a total joy. However dark and difficult the long days of winter were with their obstacles barriers and uncertainties and the fears that we would somehow fail. There was always a small smattering of hope that things would eventually work out for the better. We have been able to rekindle our love for our own culture and connections, track back through pathways and places that were already part of our story and re-establish the significance of our own place in this wonderful landscape.
The move in springtime to Heysham has been a wonderful and welcome move into what promises to be a pleasant phase of our lives. The sea and scenery are endless sources of peace, calm and serenity. The joy to be able to walk and witness this place in all its beauty and glory for just a small part of each day is genuine food for the soul. There is a song by Groove Armada it is such a seaside song, it talks of sand-dunes and salty air and it is just the sentiment of this place, a seaside town resting on its laurels and trying to reinvent itself as the coastal jewel in the crown resting at the foothills of the Lake District. Mountains on the horizon, resplendent in a salmon sunset, windmills stretching out to sea as far as the eye can see, ancient history carved into the headland and wilderness, wind and wavespray.
Mid tide Glasson Dock
In sprightly spring-time sunshine
Fear and dark thoughts ebb
Alison Jean Hankinson
This is my late offering for Haibun Monday and is about fear receding.
oops just missed the link by 35 minutes…
I am the face of hope,
In the fast fading light.
I am the distant dream
Driving forwards, when the day draws to a close,
The Star-bright shining in a suburban sultry night.
I am the laughter and the tears, the fear and guilt and pain,
Felt by all the mothers before me, the broken and the humbled, the joyous and loving,
I am the seed, the seedling, the roots, trunk and branches.
I bear the fruit. I am the womb of time.
I am me, fifty and finally come of age, woman.
Alison Jean Hankinson
It is open link night #190 at d’Verse and so we are encouraged to submit anything we choose, this was part of something I wrote a while back, and I guess it is what I need to believe at the moment. Returning and coming home has been nothing short of gruelling, nothing has been simple at all. It has been a little like hurling yourself from a small cliff into a ferocious and stormy ocean. I have to know deep down that it will come right and that the storm will pass. To do this I have to peel back the layers and remind myself of what I believe I am and then slowly start to pick myself up again.
The image is Ellen and the tree- the second version…and my children are very much a symbol of what I am.
The train clatters down the track
Clickety clack clickety clack
To deliver the coal and slack
From the pithead.
Smoke emanates from the dirty stack
Wives hanging washing out the back
From the outhouses of the back to backs
In Terraceville our suburban mill-town.
Kids play in the street and no- one cares
Mothers holler for their offspring and no-one dares
Be late for supper. Free from care
Because they are always there,
And we are taught to share
With each other.
Got no money put it on tick
Misbehave and you get the stick
Get drunk Friday and you’ll be in the nick
In our suburban mill-town.
Alison Jean Hankinson
The photos are from the Peter Fisher Archive and gallery….and this was where I grew up.
This is an attempt…. of sorts for poetics….for d’Verse poetics… I am not sure I achieved…it was not something I normally do…but we are here to learn…. so I have given it a go.
