inspiration – Page 12 – Hues of Hankinson

Count your blessings…

Here it is- (I’m sorry- I tried)

The moment of realisation

That we didn’t make it big.

But on a day like today, I count my blessings,

It is good to be alive and thrive inside

in spite of the complexities of life.

Why worry? Why ruminate

On what could have been,

When we can celebrate the beauty and the bounty of all that we behold.

With fragile threads we weave our stories

Try to fasten our futures on to what we hold dear

We take so much for granted, and we often fear

The void, the loss, the loneliness, the finite ending.

We should instead let our spirits soar and hold this beautiful moment

In our memory for eternity.

I wanted to use this for OLN at d’Verse as it is something I need to remind myself about. The sunset tonight was simply magnificent and no matter how complex and difficult life is there is still much to be thankful for. Perhaps this year that is what I shall have as my resolution “Let our spirits soar.”

Wish you were near.

If I could turn back the clock and revisit the years

The worry and fears would feature less in our lives

I would hold your hand tightly and cherish the tears

I would be kinder, argue less, smile more and realise

That the memories and moments and having you near

Are worth more than ever as ever-swiftly time flies.

©Alison Jean Hankinson

This is my contribution to the birthday open link night at d’Verse. I am a November birthday. This is about my children, especially my firstborn twin, who is a long way from home and is bravely making her way in the world with no family at her side. When I look back at all the moments I wish there had been more time not less.

Ode to the town hall clock.

The town hall clock, hands of time

Counting the minutes, measuring the moments

Of our paltry lives.

We don’t look up enough

Sometimes we don’t see beyond our own story

Yet still the hands move round.

That same clock struck 11, sixteen years ago.

Same minute, same location, same season.

The leaves fell to the ground in remembrance.

Synchronicity in those hands

You were so small then in your red coat.

Time stood still for that one moment.

I captured your essence in early digital perfection.

The father, the child, the moment

Beneath the town hall clock, the hands that never stop.

©Alison Jean Hankinson

This is for d’Verse. It is my ode to the town hall clock which seems visible from just about everywhere in Lancaster. The theme and timing is appropriate as it will be Remembrance weekend. The feature image was taken after the service in 2001 where ironically my husband was in the remembrance parade before he became a veteran of war.

November frost.

City skyline

Frosted borders fringe the kerbstones

Mist mysteriously rising from the River Lune

Castle walls clear against the backdrop of a steely blue sky

Last umber leaves sombre against the sun’s glistening rays

Beautiful day to breathe.

Indeed we are infinite.

We are infinite came from the perks of being a wallflower– one of my favourite film scenes, the tunnel. This morning was so beautiful and fresh that it reminded me of this, especially travelling across the bridge. I was driving though so couldn’t get a photo. This one I have used under creative commons. Credit below.

Image- credit:

Ray of hope.

It came to me in a dream

light across the void.

Our lives mere moments

fragile fragments of time

thrust into the tumultuous tempest

of a vast and emerging eternity.

It came to me in a dream

light across the void.

©Alison Jean Hankinson

A perfect storm of turbulent gases

Credit: ESA/Hubble; European Space Agency, NASA, and J. Hester (Arizona State University)

This is for d’Verse, poetics where we were asked to use one of the images to look upwards.

Give with a glad heart…

I watched a film this weekend that has left an indelible imprint on my mind. I wept in places as I watched and the story made my heart and soul bleed, partly because of the kindness demonstrated by the one character for the other but also partly for the complete lack of humanity and kindness shown by others in the same instance. The film was called I Daniel Blake.

I cried because of the injustice, I cried because I had felt those things this year too, I cried for the mother’s love of her children and for how she had gone without to ensure her children were well. I cried for the kindness of the old man for helping the family despite his own hardship and loss. I cried mostly for a society that seems to have forgotten how important kindness is. I cried because in my desperate hours of need I have been given kindess. I cried because even in my own desperate hours of need, my needs will have been far less significant than the needs of many others who probably also needed kindness.

Give with a glad heart.

Expect nothing in return

Kindness warms, ice melts.

©Alison Jean Hankinson

This is for d’Verse Haibun monday. The birds are just because….I feed the birds…all birds…big ones, little ones, brown ones, white ones….The seagull on the roof has a gammy leg…he still survives…

Dear daughters

It’s never too late to change direction

If the path you are on is not going to lead to the life that you wanted then be brave, take a deep breath and take the fork in the road and change direction.

Don’t settle for less than you deserve. If you earned it then value it and value yourself. Don’t let anyone rubbish your achievements however great or small they may be. Every step forward is brave and courageous when you are journeying into the unknown.

Hold love carefully in your hands and hearts, it can be fragile and can break in the gentlest breeze or be strong and cross any void or vacuum. Take it for what it is and keep it safe in your memory whether it lasted a moment, a lifetime or an eternity.

Be kind to yourself. You are all you have. Don’t wrap yourself in cotton wool, but remember you only have one life.

Be kind to others. Be compassionate. They too will have a story, it might not be the same as yours but it will have laughter and tears, love, loss and heartache.

Ask for help when you need it. Sometimes a trouble shared is a trouble halved and there are souls out there who would gladly share their last supper with another who was in need.

Remember to look upwards, see the sunrise and the sunset. Look at the stars and the skies. There is a whole universe out there waiting.

Breathe. Slowly. Breathe. Take time to be in the moment. See it for what it is and then let it go.

Love always-

Mumma. XXX

©Alison Jean Hankinson

Charlie the pheasant…

Charlie was a pheasant

Who lived out in the bush

He came out when the sun shone

Eating insects in a rush

His wife was rather drab

In plumage next to him

She strutted across the garden

In sunshine frost and rain.

Mating calls would echo

Springtime rooster ruled the lair

Sometimes he had a harem

For the pheasant chicks to fare

Charlie was a pheasant

Who didn’t live for long

But in this time brought happiness

Despite his awful song.

Submitted for d’verse open link night.

What am I?

A nagging doubt

As my footsteps dulcet echo across the darkened dismal cobbles of a dreary street

Dutiful.

A whisper of solace

As our lives we share, and you weep and ache with despair

Comforter.

A cacophony of cheeriness

As we stride with gusto into growing uncertainty

Supporter.

A melancholy melody of metamorphosis

As I struggle to flutter and fly, reaching for the stars in the sky and knowing that I

wore the mask of the chameleon.

A rich and colourful cadenza of congeniality

As I reminisce and retreat

Into my own colourless void.

This if for poetics at d’Verse.

The image was labelled for reuse and was in the public domain- wikimedia-

By Nic McPhee from Morris, MN, USA (Corn and sunflower (butterfly is optional)) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons