Category: Heysham

Tears of summer

It should have been a whimsical day. Instead, I have existed somewhere between morose and forlorn. The summer seems to have vanished and with it all sense of joy and certainty only to be replaced by some strange uneasy restlessness, not quite admitting defeat but eager to have some steerage and surety about where my next steps will lead me.

It has been a weekend of waves and high tides, unsettling and I have been unable to make the most of getting down to the sea. Today it became a necessity, to track the well-worn paths through the grass, camera in hand with the hope of catching a gull in flight or a breath-taking landscape to restore some semblance of order into my world.

Tide high Seagulls fly
Raindrops splatter Terns shelter
Summer deserts us

 

This is for Haibun Monday at d’Verse, where were asked to think about summer.

 

Alison Jean Hankinson

 

Seaside sandcastles

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Isn’t summertime just grand

Children playing by the sea-shore

Building seaside castles in the sand

 

Poolside picnics we demand

Sand in sandwiches we deplore

Isn’t summertime just grand

 

Sun cream to give a safe tan

And stop our shoulders getting sore

Building seaside castles in the sand.

 

Sea breeze blows across the land

We can hear the ocean roar

Isn’t summertime just grand

 

Music mellow from the brass band

Across the pier soothing sounds soar

Building seaside castles in the sand

 

Collecting seashells and seaweed by hand

Decorating the creations we adore

Isn’t summertime just grand

Building seaside castles in the sand

 

Alison Jean Hankinson

For d’verse– an attempt at a villanelle…..

 

 

 

 

Summer sunset at Heysham

Window frames sweated

in the sticky heat of late summer’s evening.

Bats darted through the boughs of silhouetted trees.

The sky was bloodshot and the glassy surface of the sea

reflected the haze of a lazy Sunday.

Stars peppered the night sky like grape-shot.

 

Alison Jean Hankinson

 

The challenge for d’Verse  #35 this evening was to create a quadrille containing the word pepper to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sgt Pepper…

So this is my offering.

The images were from last night’s sunset as viewed from the upstairs of the house.

Is Urban Walking a Sport?

So this is my sport and I have had to invent it for me. For many reasons like lack of coordination and skill and other critical factors like health and well-being.  I have had to develop my own sport where I can compete against myself. I call it urban walking. I do it with dedicated regularity, attempt an element of speed and finesse and probably walk many kilometres over the course of the average week. The general aim is for about 45 minutes to an hour about 5 times a week and I try to find circular routes and make sure they have a measure of incline and a rewarding and bountiful view. I think it must be a common sport because when I am on the promenade I find many others doing the same thing but usually in sportier attire than I.

It is a rewarding sport, the view and vistas change with the weather and the seasons and pathway travelled. I have my favourite haunts and my own little challenges along the way, do we need windswept today or are we more content to smell the flowers. Often my husband joins me in my urban wanderings and then it is more competitive, he has a slightly longer stride than I and he is always on a mission to push and exert and add a little extra challenge, sometimes it is I that lead the challenge following a day of solo exploration and I will encourage us to take a new path to add to our familiar routes. Our favourites always take in the seashore where we feel exhilarated and catch our breath as the wind blows cold and howls around our ears, we ride through our daydreams on the wings of gliding seagulls.

 

Rocks awash with waves

On the shoreline seagulls soar

Sweeping summer storm,

 

Alison Jean Hankinson.

This is for d’Verse…haibun Monday… we were asked to share on Sport so it might be a long shot but can I count urban walking as a sport?

In this life…

 

 

In this life of complex order and sequence

Is a simplicity and fragility that is there to guide us.

We must value the moment we hold in our hands

Take it and treasure it and place it in our conscious mind.

 

In this life of uncertainty and fragmented disenchantment

we must honour the souls of the ones that came before us

So that that our own endeavours however meagre and small

Will have dignity and connection in their labour and toil.

 

We must appreciate the moments of beauty and bounty

And be humble and honest and have integrity.

Lest all that we know should be gone tomorrow

In this life of tragedy and human sorrow.

 

Alison Jean Hankinson

Whilst I wrote this on Saturday it was entirely with the sentiments of d’Verse poetics challenge that was looking for poems to save the soul….and I think we have suffered greatly in the last few weeks with the attacks on London and Manchester and I wanted to peel back the layers to what is still important and will always be important.

Today was a very blustery day….a pooh bear kind of day, and so long as we remember to feel the wind on our face and acknowledge it for what it is we are still clearly alive and functioning.