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.

 

© Alison Jean Hankinson

 

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

The Journey Home.

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.

 

Visiting time.

It is a moment shared

Amid the peace and quiet

Of a drizzly afternoon.

 

No need to talk anymore

Our words and thoughts are feathers

Floating on the breeze

 

A smile, a nod to show we care

A hand held here

Love’s conversation needs.

 

© Alison Jean Hankinson.

The image is my great grandfather John Henry Mcclenan- he was in the military hospital.

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To a wild rose……

Bramble Berry

Crabapple jelly

Michaelmas daisies

Just for show.

 

Radiant roses revived

Through storms survived

Whilst rosehips scattered

On the ground below.

 

A sliver of sun flitters through the clouds.

 

©Alison Jean Hankinson

This is for Weekend Mini-Challenge at imaginary garden with real toads

P1060430

 

Remember remember the fifth of November…..

Goblins ghosts and ghoulies

Pumpkins at the door

Bobbing apples in a tub

Kids come back for more.

 

Cauldrons cooking winter soup

Penny for the Guy

Bonfire night and fireworks

Brighten up the night-time sky.

 

© Alison Jean Hankinson

Image in public domain. The conspirators.

 

Autumn mists

We had to take Emily to a very early morning television shoot, she was being an extra. It gave us the chance to make the most of Tatton Park and the autumn leaves before the trees are rendered naked by Ophelia.  She became unexpectedly very ill and we rushed home and she was admitted to hospital. I had to come home and leave her there.

She phoned all awry and crying this morning and as I rushed to get to her I looked back towards the sea and saw the most amazing misty haze, and it was the calm before the storm, going into town the River Lune was like a looking glass. They have kept her in again and the wind is billowing and blowing.

Calm before the storm

Sea mists rise and hazy hues

Leaves flutter and fall.

 

©Alison Jean Hankinson

This is for d’Verse. Haibun Monday.

 

There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance.

Ophelia

Heading for our shore

Storm force winds

Drenching rain

Surge alerts for Coastal towns

Fear ferocious winds.

 

©Alison Jean Hankinson

This is for Real toads- Shadorma. Shadorma is a popular Spanish form of poetry using a 353375 format.

Ophelia is headed our way and will arrive 30 years to the day of the violent storm we experienced in 1987.

 

Love beyond the grave.

Love lingers

Older wiser true

Loss of Youth

Light shineth

Shrewd shadows beyond the guile

My heart yearns for you.

 

©Alison Jean Hankinson

This is for Real toads- Shadorma

Pioneering hands.

These fragile hands

They carved our lives

Toiled and tilled the land

Weathered storms to thrive

Ensured we survived.

In dreams we built in stone

Sodhouses we were to call home

 

These weathered palms

Supported and grew

Maintained our farm

Brought strength anew

Enabled hope to shine through.

Prairie-land homesteaders

Mid-west pioneers.

 

©Alison Jean Hankinson

Image from Wikimedia- creative commons labelled for reuse.

For d’Verse.

 

In peaceful sleep.

With patient love he watched her as she slept

She who had held him close to breast as child

Deep within his chest his aching heart wept.

Whilst she appeared contented in her dreams and smiled

As though her fears and troubles were finally reconciled

For soon the relentless punishing pain would be gone

Yet in his memory-this moment of love would linger on.

 

©Alison Jean Hankinson

This is for d’Verse where we were asked to write in Chaucerian stanza. First time I have done this.

The final slumber….

I am not sure I got the meter right.

The image is my Grandmother and her eldest son Frank.