TRACKS OF TEARS

15/04/201724/01/2018 / deuxiemepeau / 8 Comments

Day 15; National Poetry Writing Month 30 Days/30 Poems #NaPoWriMo

There’s a girl
this morning
on the metro,
unaware of the crowds,
unaware that I’m late.

There’s a girl
on the metro
packed with tears,
with tears in her eyes
and no place for more lies.

There’s a girl
on the metro
in the morning,
moving through motions,
through stations of grieving
and tunnels of tears.
Her breath is broken
like she’s been running
from something,
like this train
that we’re on
that keeps on breaking

and she’s breaking
this morning,
this girl
on the metro,
with tears
and tunnels
and stops
with no answers.

This girl
on the metro,
unaware that I’m late,
this girl who’s missing
something on the metro,
who’ll miss that someone
who’s making her cry,
who’ll miss that someone
when the lines divide

and leaves her
in tracks of tears.

All Words and Photographs By Damien B. Donnelly

Audio version available on SoundCloud:

FRIVOLOUS PHILANDERERS

14/04/201724/01/2018 / deuxiemepeau / 1 Comment

Day 14; National Poetry Writing Month 30 new poems/30 Days #NaPoWriMo

I listen
to the river rushing,
pushing, washing,
I listen
to the water slipping,
seeping, weeping
over once regal rock
now withering, wuthering,
whispering.
I listen
to the water
trailing the last vestiges
of its veins
through what remains
of the terrains we’ve choke’n
taken and broken.
I listen
to the ferocious sound
of nature’s force
and hear the horse’s
gallop along the course;
the gallant getaway,
no longer blindly blinkered
to the frivolous philanderers,
the malicious meanders
of the bystanders
and their current commanders,
and in its hooves
I hear a wilderness at run
from the trampling of the gun,
the so-called fun
that has too soon undone
what the gods once begun.
I listen
to the rivers running
and realise
you can’t see the end
but you can hear it coming.

All Words and Photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

Audio version available on SoundCloud:

https://soundcloud.com/damien-donnelly-2/frivolous-philanderers

JE SUIS…

13/04/201716/08/2021 / deuxiemepeau / 9 Comments

Day 13 of National Poetry Writing Month 30 poems in 30 days

Beau, tu sais?
Tu es beau,
c’est vrai.
Non, I say,
ca, c’est pas vrai.
Moi, je sais
d’autre chose,
mais beau?
Non, I say,
je ne suis pas beau.

Fragility I know,
mon ami s’appelle
fragilité,
pour lui
je porte a smile,
comme de vêtements,
like a shield,
mon sourire
est beau,
ca, tu peut dire,
ca, tu peut écrire,
but I am not my smile,
I am the boy behind
and sometimes it hurts,
tu sais? Ca fait mal.

Mais merci, comme même,
c’est beau ce que tu m’a dit,
ce que quelqu’un m’a dit,
c’est beau, mais non,
c’est pas moi; I am…
je suis autre chose.

All Words and Photographs by Damien B. Donnelly.

DELICATE DISTRACTIONS

12/04/201716/08/2021 / deuxiemepeau / Leave a comment

Day 12: National Poetry Writing Month #NaPoWriMo

We dangle delicacies
(far from looking delicate)
to tempt the beasts
to play ferocious
for our pleasure,
for our entertainment.
We put money
on the beast
who can be more brutal
than the bunch.
We are intrigued
by the beasts
whose nature
we’ve changed,
caught and caged,
who we’ve tempered
and tamed
in our need
to remind ourselves
who is the man and
who is the beast.

We dangle delicacies
(desperately delicately)
on front of animals
so as not look at ourselves
and see the beasts
we’ve become.

All Words and Photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

Audio Version available on SoundCloud:

OUI

11/04/201716/08/2021 / deuxiemepeau / 3 Comments

Day 11: National Poetry Writing Month #NaPoWriMo

Was it true, was it you,
in the blink of an eye
and the history of a man
out of time, a man not mine?
Was it true, was it you,
who settled sweetly onto sofa,
who slipped swiftly into suggestions
as we washed whispers with wine?
Was it true, was it you,
caressing and undressing the distance
that tickled from your red bricks (red lips)
into the tangles of my sheets fresh?
Was it true, was it you, was it me,
that northern man kissing
and climbing over southern son’s
heart he wore carved upon flesh?

Oui, you say, in my ear, still,
Oui, you said, from my bed

and then we laughed…

and somewhere
in the distance
a train pulled away.

All Words and Photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

UPSIDE DOWN

10/04/201701/04/2017 / deuxiemepeau / 3 Comments

Day 10: National Poetry Writing Month #NaPoWriMo

Happiness

endless happiness

harboured in holds of hope hampers of harmony

hampers of… hampered happiness

heaped under hammer hindered

happiness and less happiness and less

under spotlight soundless motionless while all is in movement

happiness cannot be held in streaming eyes

happiness should not fall tear drops are not tender

see them falling falling falling

for you for all for everyone for nothing and no-one

happy to have hope

happy endless happiness

endless happiness and less happiness

and less and…
less visible.

All words and photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

THE QUEST ACROSS THE SEA

09/04/201724/01/2018 / deuxiemepeau / 2 Comments

Day 9; National Poetry Writing Month #NaPoWriMo

Wander, he thought, and wander did he
across the land and over the sea,
adventure, he thought, but distraction came free
as distance dissolved the boundary.

For a while, he thought, a while to flee,
to see what rests, to see what can be,
understand, he said, this need to flee,
understand, accept and set it free.

Relax, he thought, and relax did he
across the land and over the sea,
feel, he thought, the possibility,
let dreams delight in discovery.

But hold, he though, what you cannot see,
those hearts you left across the sea,
release, he said, if it’s not to be,
all bonds too fragile you must set free.

Just fly, he thought, all across the sea
fly like a bird, uncaged, and set free,
draw the vision and see what can be,
feed on the flames of positivity.

For a while, he thought, a while to flee,
your name, your nation, their opinion of me,
but to find yourself again is the key
and not lose yourself in that quest to be free.

All Words by Damien B. Donnelly. My own self portrait aged 18

Audio version available at Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/damien-donnelly-2/the-quest-across-the-sea

IN THE SHADOW OF THE SUN

08/04/201708/04/2017 / deuxiemepeau / 11 Comments

Day 8: National Poetry Writing Month #NaPoWriMo

Sun shines in the valley
where the sun king came to stay,
shade is shy in the valley
at the king and queen’s hideaway.

Shadows slip through the valley
down from stars to under stairs,
some secrets slip through the valley
whispered from lips of concrete heirs.

Sun shines in the valley
on swans now savage at swim,
the sun shines in the valley
though the peasants weren’t allowed in.

Shadows sneak through the valley
through the greed gathered within,
shadow is splitting the valley
like guillotines cutting through skin.

Sun shines in the valley
as gold from the fountains flow,
the sun shines in the valley
where follies fade and legends grow.

Shadows sleep in the valley
along paths where tourists thread,
shadows are stuck in the valley
like dust on ideals long dead.

Sun shines in the valley
as Apollo rides the waves,
the sun shines in the valley
and drowns the suggestion of slaves.

Shadows stretch through the valley
pressed into promises made,
shadow is song in the valley
on benches where kisses once laid.

Sun shines in the valley
in the sun king’s palace of pride,
the sun shines in the valley
where they often just came to hide.

All Words and Photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

Photographs taken on Sunday 2nd April at Chateau de Versailles, Paris, in the sun.

UNDER THE FALL

07/04/201724/01/2018 / deuxiemepeau / 5 Comments

Day 7: National Poetry Writing Month #NaPoWriMo

I want to live as a tree
born from branches
turning, twisting
rummaging, rooting,
roots in the earth
in the flesh,
sucking substance
from the soul
of the soil,
head in the sky
reaching, rising,
hoping, shedding
my skin like leaves
in autumn
and starting again
each spring
after rising up
from under the fall.
I want to live as a tree.

All Words and Photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

Photograph taken in Parc de Sceaux, Paris, France

THE LIGHT THAT SHIFTS THE SHADOW

06/04/201724/01/2018 / deuxiemepeau / 9 Comments

Day 6: National Poetry Writing Month #NaPoWriMo

Trains used to slip
through these tracks
where runners now train,
old locomotives now relocated
like the light that displaces
the shadow,
but the lines
still linger,
less steam now,
more sweat
and sometimes
that light
that shifts
the shadow,
trains used to slip
through these tracks
that the city now tickles,
threatens with timeshares
to tear up what time still shares
in the corners where that shadow
leans into the light, on the lines where life
once rattled and raced,
before the new towers
knocked the old homes,
before the runners
and the walkways
and the boarders
and the builders
and the cranes
now shifting
into sight,
rising, in the distance,
just a step
beyond
that
light.