alisonhankinson

A little bit of Frank…..

She gave me a gracious smile

It lingered on her lips awhile

And gave a subtle taste

Of the magical embrace

That would later take my breath away.

It’s that old black magic has me in its spell

It was a meeting of fleeting love

Of tenderness and stargazing above

We held hands beneath the moonlight

Our hearts burned like stars shining brightly.

In heat of desire our lips tangoed a fiery kiss.

That old black magic that you weave so well.

I loved her passionately for she had stolen my heart.

With those mystical eyes that had twinkled from the start.

I loved her for all that her kisses had promised to be to me

I loved her beyond the mellow moon we could see distantly

But by sunrise, our love tryst was over too soon.

The mate that fate had me created for.

©Alison Jean Hankinson

For a morsel of Magic over at dVerse tonight. Frank always had the magic….

The image was in the public domain- wikimedia, and is

Frank Sinatra and Jill St. John. From Tony Rome.

The moon tonight- I had to wait…there was cloud cover…it is a harvest moon.

September Sundown at Dallam Park

It was a beautiful Saturday up on the Solway Firth with my dad, there was a slight hint of “autumn” in the early morning and early evening, but a lovely sense of sun and summer still in the air. I drove up to spend the day with dad and we played around with telescopes and binoculars on the estuary, watching herons and swans and other local bird life.

Driving home, still keen to squeeze the last moments out of a beautiful late summer day I came off the motorway a couple of junctions early at Crooklands so I could drive down the A6 to see if the deer were close to the river at Dallam Park. A perfect time of day to see the sun shining through the branches along the riverbank. I wasn’t able to stop to take pictures so have had to use one I took up in Scotland on August Bank Holiday weekend. It felt like the last of the summer sun and by the time I had got home there was a chill in the air.

Twilight sun shimmer

Deer grazing by the river

Sense of Autumn chill.

©Alison Jean Hankinson.

Today the prompt for dVerse Haibun Monday is komorebi which means sun that shines through the branches.

The feature image was taken at Threave just over a week ago, the other picture is of Dallam park, the deer shed is very near the river and the deer often congregate here. The image was labelled for reuse under creative commons- © Copyright Karl and Ali and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

The Burden of Love.

Allowing those we love to follow their dreams.
To be drawn to the people and places
that hold real meaning for them.

Allowing them to be themselves
To walk at their own pace, dwell in their own space
without having to change for you.

For Toads open link.

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Last Rose of Summer.

Tranquil morning,

Slivers of sun ripple over a glass smooth sea

Dew sodden grass with the first fall of autumn leaves.

Robin redbreast sings his September song

Lyrical and subdued sheltered in the boughs of the old plum tree

Last rose of summer sheds her petals.

My offering for open link night at d’Verse.

Spent a lovely late summer afternoon up on the Solway Firth with my Dad. The Robin sang most of the afternoon in the garden and it really took a lot of patience to track him down and get a reasonable photo. Both images taken this afternoon in Dad’s back garden.

Andromeda-She had eyes the colour of periwinkle blue.

Perseus pursued the mortal Gorgon

Elusive Medusa with her head full of snakes

Reticent to cast a glance like others before him

Into her petrifying eyes with their stone-cold stare

Winged sandals gifted by Hermes to fly him to the lair

Immortal Athena supplied a shield his gaze to spare.

Nightfall invisible in his cap he approached

Killing her brutally with his magical sword as she slept

Life extinguished her blood spilled forth from which

Emerged Pegasus the winged horse and his sibling Chrysaor.

Brave and bold as he returned home

Love blossomed with Andromeda.

Uplifted from her sacrificial rock, he gazed upon her

Eyes the colour of periwinkle blue.

©Alison Jean Hankinson

This is a second contribution for d’Verse– Frank’s acrostic.

All images available in public domain-

Perseus with the head of Medusa- Cellini. Perseus en Andromeda. Potter

Pegasus
GhostWorks Texture Competition #50-Texture with thanks to Skeletal Mess
white horse with thanks to venomxbaby.deviantart.com/
angel wings thanks to grannysatticstock.deviantart.com/#/d4gjjl7

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Depression-never give up hope.

Destructive tendencies overshadow joy

Empty heart and emotionless void

Piercing silence and perpetual loneliness

Replaces peace and solitude.

Even in our darkest hours we seek the light.

Sustain our strength with firm resolve

Support each other with promises new

In higher spirits soar above the stigma and the shame

Overcome the numbness.

Never give up on tomorrow

©Alison Jean Hankinson

At d’Verse Frank challenged us to create an acrostic, and this is tonight’s offering, I might have another later, because he introduced me to some other styles and I might have a go at one of them.

I took the photos tonight down on the beach, it was a beautiful late summer dusk, I wanted to catch the seagull soaring to represent the spirit and hope at the end of the acrostic, they soar too fast and my hands are not steady enough…but I was happy with the two I managed to capture for here. This is what I do to uplift my spirit.

Memories of a beautiful woman.

She was our Fairytale princess

Miles of ivory silk taffeta trimmed with lace

10,000 pearls and mother of pearl sequins

Giving a touch of grace.

Amidst the majesty of a royal wedding,

A beautiful woman

With a compassionate heart

Touching untouchables was her special art

At a time when HIV heartbreak

Brought devastating deaths in its wake.

The Indian summer of her life

Holidaying in Greece a rose still in bloom

Later in Paris a life taken too soon

In the Alma tunnel broken dreams

Smashed senselessly into smithereens.

We still have our memories and we still shed our tears

For your loss is immeasurable even after all these years

We have watched your sons grow into fine young men

They have carried your love forward time and again.

Rest in Peace and God bless,

You were a beautiful woman, our fairy tale princess.

On 31st August it will be twenty years since Princess Diana passed away, my mum passed away 11 years later on the same day, we both loved Princess Diana.

One of my first blog posts was about her. This is the link:

Portrait of a Princess- Our Diana- The People’s Princess.

The image was in the public domain and able to be reproduced it came from:

058792: Visit by Diana Princess of Wales 1992
Diana Princess of Wales visiting Interconnection Systems (Plessey) in South Shields 1992. South Shields/Visits/Princess Diana Collection. Newcastle Libraries.

Autumn’s playground.

Bright blue wellington boots

Splashing through the stream

Autumn leaves surrender

Children’s faces gleam.

Splishing through the water

Matching coats and hats

Sunday forest fun-day,

Walking wet and muddy tracks.

Collecting up prickly conkers

Sycamore whizzers and pine cones

Autumn’s children’s playground

Before winter chills their bones.

This is for d’Verse where we were asked to think about shoes. Mine became wellington boots.

Image labelled for reuse-

Every autumn in the UK the fruit of the horse chestnut is gathered by children in order to play the age old game of “conkers”. (U.S. Air Force photo/Judith Wakelam)

Road Trip to Brighouse Bay.

As a young boy in Kirkcudbright,

Dad sat on the harbour wall eating fish n chips.

Summer bliss.

Wet and windy August Bank holiday

Returning to old haunts with Dad,

Trip down memory lane,

Eating haddock and chips

In the bandstand in the rain.

My offering for d’Verse after a blissful weekend away in the caravan taking a trip down memory lane with Dad.

Cocoa Beach

It was to be the holiday of a lifetime, reunited as a family following my husband’s “unexpected” tour of duty in Iraq, we had planned a two-week vacation to Florida. Emily was devoted to Mickey Mouse and it had been her plea that had prompted me to book the holiday to keep our spirits up in those long terrifying months. We booked a stay in Orlando near Old Kissemmee and a week in Cocoa Beach so we could visit Cape Canaveral and venture as far as Daytona Beach and the Harley Davidson shop.

It was everything it had promised to be and more, we had breakfast with Donald Duck, watched the Disney Parade, saw Snow White, melted in the heat, saw real raccoons, bought trinkets in the old town of Kissemmee. We set off in the early hours of Friday 13^th August to try to outrun Hurricane Charley and hoped to nestle in the safety of Cocoa Beach. Hurricane Charley had other ideas though and the hotel bravely hosted a hurricane party and we survived a little bit wet and flooded but mostly intact. Cocoa Beach Daytona and Orlando were all hit fairly badly but it didn’t spoil our holiday. There was a little eating place called Coconuts on the Beach and they served the best Nachos I have ever tasted and I always declare that if I ever win big in the lottery that my first treat will be a return visit to Cocoa Beach to bask in the heat and dine at Coconuts again, I believe it is still there.

Cocoa beach summer

Nacho-time at Coconuts

Hurricane hits hard.