THE KIND OF CREATURES WE ARE

14/10/201713/03/2019 / deuxiemepeau / 4 Comments

Strange are the creatures we are
beyond the bones that break
and the backs that bare,
striving to question our own conception
within this creation ever depleting

(and yet we all want more).

Strange are the creatures we are
beyond the fingers that fondle
and the footprints that fade,
striving to find a love completely,
a comfort to cover the concrete

(that we poured on the soil ourselves).

Strange are the creatures we are
beyond the blood that feeds
and the flesh that festers,
striving to hold the stars in our hands
now that our planet we’ve pulled apart

(the greener grass of another galaxy).

Strange are the creatures we are
beyond the tongues that taste
and the eyes that envy,
striving to have all that we can hold
not thinking what we’ll leave behind

(not thinking of those we leave behind).

Strange the creatures we are
beyond the heart that hurts
and the needs not enough,
striving to stay afloat within the fear
yet laughing as we’re carried away.

Strange the creatures,
these creatures we are.

All words and drawings by Damien B. Donnelly

I, YOU, ME

13/10/201713/03/2019 / deuxiemepeau / 7 Comments

I, you, me,

I, you, me,
fear, fight, fade,
I, you, me,
black, white, grey,
I, you, me,
happy to harbour hope,
I, you, me,
happier heaping hurt,
I, you, me,
birth, life, death
I, you, me,
unique below the uniform,
I, you, me,
straight, gay, unboxed,
I, you, me,
happy, hopeful, hurt,
I, you, me,
flesh, bone, break,
I, you, me,
living, longing, leaving,
I, you, me,
crawling, climbing, falling,
I, you, me,
victor, victim, vanquished,
I, you, me,
blaming, burning, bombing,
I, you, me,
nothing lasts forever.

I, you, me, no one lives forever.
I, you, me, I who am nothing,
you who are nothing,
and yet all we see is the Me.

All words and pictures by Damien B. Donnelly

UNDER THE BRIDGES

12/10/201713/03/2019 / deuxiemepeau / 7 Comments

We build bridges to cross trenches;
trouble, treachery, tyranny,
to cut across life’s inconveniences;
cuts and cries and crisis,
we cross bridges to build beliefs;
I will, I wish, I want,
discarding ties and loves deceased;
I lost, I left, I let go,
holding out for a life that’s better;
bolder, bigger, brighter,
hoping now for love that’s righter;
safer, surer, stronger.

I want to wade into the water,
want the waves to push me harder,
I want to catch the crush of the current,
to fight to find the will, the warrant,
to comprehend the deepest parts,
the push, the pull, the hurt, the hearts,
to understand the fuss, the force,
to know how the river finds it course.

Darker, steeper, deeper,
the longing to linger longer.

All words and photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

WHAT IS POETRY, TO ME, TO YOU?

11/10/201716/08/2021 / deuxiemepeau / 12 Comments

A few months ago at work, here at our Paris Atelier, I took part in a workshop on presentation. As a pattern maker by day for the women’s wear brand & Other Stories I don’t really have a need to present. For my job I interpret designs, create patterns; shapes, forms, work out mathematical proportions of the body and then a factory turns my computer-made pattern into a finished product; that dress you needed to have last christmas, that blouse you just couldn’t live without, or so you thought until the following season when the colour was no longer featured in any fashion magazine. So for the presentation, I decided to take my passion and talk about poetry and this is what unfolded…

It began as I pulled a mirror onto the stage and asked the audience to tell me what they saw in the mirror. Everyone saw something different. This is what poetry is about, what I see and what you see…

Poetry is a way for me to share what I see. Poetry is how I share what I see with you.

Poetry comes from what I see at the end of the lens, at the fuss when the metro stops moving, in the light that dances in the trees. These are some of the things that I see.

I am a writer, I write about what I see, but also how I feel. I am a writer, this is what I do.

I am a writer. I write my thoughts and offer them to you, to let you see what you want to see.

It all starts with what I see and how I see it and how much I see in it. We all see it, we just don’t all talk about it.

As a writer I am constantly questioning the reflections, looking for connections.

What I see in the mirror or in reflections is different to what you see. I see a grey car, I see a shadow of something that had meaning, I see a building that is hiding in the sky, I see a city drowning in the water that keeps moving while it cannot move.

Poetry is a way of making a connection, between what I see, how I feel and how you react to it.

Poetry does not have to be complicated, confusing, only for professors. Poetry for me is simply using words to describe a feeling, a thought, a moment that begs to be shared, a beauty that should not be missed.

I am a writer, poetry is my way of connecting with you, the reader, this is my reflection, see me, do you see me as I see me, do you see the world as I see it?

999

We can all see the same things, we can all experience the same feelings but we interpret it in different ways.

9999

I am offering you a reflection of who I am, of what I see, sometimes I am playful and I show you only what I want you to see. It is for you to look deeper if you want to.

99999

What is poetry?

A reflection, a personal beginning that opens up into a universal connection.

I am a writer.

You are the reader.

This is who we are.

This is what we see.

All words and photographs by Damien B. Donnelly.

MOTOR AND MOVEMENT

10/10/201714/03/2019 / deuxiemepeau / 6 Comments

Man or machine;
stable steel
or fragile filigree,
spinning through space,
through this space,
life the length of a thread;
never knowing
how deeply the spool is wound.
Man or machine,
we motor and move,
we spin tales
and cross lanes
looking for the link,
the correct cog to coil around,
to lighten the toil
we are threading through.
Man or machine;
one turns
and the other is turned.
All words and photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

CITE

09/10/201714/03/2019 / deuxiemepeau / 4 Comments

A city
in shadow,
a choice;
to stay
or leave,
to be the inquisitor
or the commuter,
to be constant
in the light
or to comprehend
the darkness, far from it,
to break down the barrier
between all there is to see
and all there is left of us to fear.

All words and photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

AGE IS JUST A NUMBER TO COME BACK TO

08/10/201713/03/2019 / deuxiemepeau / 5 Comments

At 9
I wanted to be
19,

at 19
I had no idea
the walls I would climb
to reach
29,

at 29
I had no idea
of the roads that would lead me to
39,

at 43
I’m happy to still know the way home.

All words by Damien B. Donnelly.

Picture is me at home, once upon a time.

DIFFERENCES

07/10/201716/08/2021 / deuxiemepeau / 9 Comments

Nature is not alike;

red reigns over green,
browns bend to blend
and lilac leans,
perfect petals poised
over tiny tufts, trembling,

buds unfold from
stretching stars.

Nature is not alike.

Humanity could be harmonious
if we delighted in our differences

with dignity.

Nature is not alike. Why should we be?
All words and photography by Damien B. Donnelly

FRAGILE REFLECTIONS

06/10/201714/03/2019 / deuxiemepeau / 9 Comments

We are not the sky.

We are not the earth.

We are just a reflection
resting on the water

and can be blown away
at the will of the wind.
All words and photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

TO LINGER LONGER, MAYBE…

05/10/201716/08/2021 / deuxiemepeau / 7 Comments

Like a whisper
tissue is painted with purpose,
silk spun from crisp cuts,
white scented with sapphire
parading into Prussian
(fragile of frame and filigree),
like a thought
an image opens, a petal unfolding,
shades seep into substance
as the edges fade
(how quickly we fall to forgetful)
light, liquid, linger, a little longer.
Thoughts tied in twists of emerald
shimmering,
simplicity on a simple stand,
in a liquid light
and the memory leans in.