Gone is the garden,
we are paved now
in parts no longer potential
to growth, to goodness.
And the crow caws in the corner,
flesh festering into feather.
Gone is the garden,
we have paved
paths over all that was precious
while thinking thoughtless,
if only we’d thought less
about what we wanted
and more about what was needed.
And the crow cowers in the corner,
questioning what became of its celebrity.
Gone is the garden
and we can never get back;
the lock now lost in lyrics too light,
in songs surrendered from soul to sold out.
Gone is the garden,
gone to graze
over another galaxy
not yet grown greedy,
we are now alien
to all the earth has asked for
strangers to the simple sand
that sweeps the shore,
and stranger still to the starlight
that shines through it’s last breath burning.
We are the crows, cawing
over concrete, in corners
claws cracking in our chaos
and confused as to where went the worth.
Al words and drawings by Damien B. Donnelly
Audio version available on Soundcloud:
Damien B. Donnelly 
Dami, I read this out to SO as I knew he’d appreciate it (his professional work is landscape design). As expected he greatly admires this poem and said it reminded him of a verse. Its from TS Eliot “This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper”. PS – I’ve done new post about cabbage trees
I love that verse! So glad you are both enjoying these little ramblings! Can’t wait to see more of the cabbage trees!
Greetings from the heat! It’s 23.26pm and still 32 degrees in a city that doesn’t cope well with extremes! Gonna be a slow night unless a storm can find us 🤗🤗
Phew! You must feel like you’re melting. If only I could send you a portion of our cool! Right now its 9.30am, VERY frosty, and the sun hasn’t come over the hill yet. Heatpump is currently going thru a defrost cycle – hope it resumes pushng out some heat soon. Funny how our environments are completely opposite!
I wouldn’t have thought of it, but I can see the reminder of the Eliot verse, too.
The drawing reminds me of the Ladies of the Canyon cover.
Yeah, that’s it- it is my homage to Ladies of the Canyon, actually every image is drawn from a Joni album, so far in order of release. This one was Canyon as it includes ‘Woodstock’ – trying to get back to the garden.
I thought the others looked Joni-like, but I didn’t realize it was in album order. Yes, back to the garden. 🙂
I am super excited that you noticed this though! A knowledge of Joni and always the musical references from you too! After my own heart xx 😘
❤