Oak Lines, Streams Deep

“Tall oaks frame waters deep,
Tower high shades hulls, buoy and beams.
Mauve, pine green and lime tinted shore,
Mind course of salt tide past Dittisham doors.”

Alison Hannah, May 2021

This sketch was captured on a very icy morning on the banks of the River Dart in Dittisham. Facing up-stream, the colours of the boats and buoys are off-set by a range of natural winter shades of the foliage of the rising hills.

This poem is a nod to the ancient oaks that give the Dart its’ name and the value the Dart has had in supporting the movement of boats and more up and down its’ length. The acknowledgement of the salty, tidal nature of this, the deepest part of the river is assigned in the final line with its’ meandering route by-passing the houses that line the Dart as its’ tide ebbs and flows.

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Strong Hull for Shifting Sand Bank

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Warfleet, Dartmouth