I climbed you today in downpours
and falling snows, no snowflake
ever the same, no footstep ever similar,
I climbed you today in sunlight
and stealing shadows, in strokes of paint
splattered in your memory by artists
as foreign as they are familiar,
I paused upon your steps, your streets
of steps, the steep steps others have taken,
others have trodden on, to take possession,
to take pictures, to take part, to be a part
of all that once was and has fallen to dust
through depression and recession,
no sails blow any longer to the wind’s wills,
the winds upon your hills no longer home
to the mills, no more the spirits linger
green to the fairy’s touch, spirits are in bottles
now, corked and capped and cost too much
and the artists now are but a shadow
of what once was, shadows for sale
on the site of what once held cause,
on this martyred mountain in Montmartre.
I climbed you today in wind and rain,
the past and future present, in a reverie
of what can no longer be, I climbed you
and stood above you and marked out
the steps I had taken along you,
along your lines and lanes that lead me
here, to this day, to this moment,
to this place as this snowflake fell,
this unique particle never to be repeated,
falling through the delicacy of creation.
I climbed you today and could hear
the train beginning to pull out of the station.
All words and photographs by Damien B. Donnelly
For a week of considering creation.
Damien B. Donnelly 
Such deep sadness. Winter, bare branches, a city and a train leaving. You have it all.
Thanks Jane. This time I’m carefully packing everything but the sadness 🤞
Are your plans definite now? It will be a wrench to leave Paris.
All definite, finish work the 29th nov and will move a week or two after, stay in Dublin to being with and then start saving to build the dream of a B&B/writer’s retreat on the west coast later on. So now I am dumping the crap, selling the unwanted and packing the memories! and Breathing!
Another one! I had a friend in Paris, had her first (Úna) same time as me. She was working in a pub and moved to Kerry with her partner to start a B&B. Wonder if they’re still there? I envied her but I think the climate would kill me now.
If you’re ever looking for staff, I have two in the restaurant/hotel business with wanderlust 🙂
I’ll keep that in mind
🙂
Saying goodbye contains every emotion. (K)
and then some
It’s an ascent to the light with lamps to light your way.. of course you’ll not take with you the sadness! In our own way, we’re each moving on beyond our past.. so excited for you!
Thanks for the lamps and the cheers my dear Liz, right back at you xx