All photography by Damien B Donnelly
Exhibition at Atelier des Lumieres, Paris, Vincent Van Gogh and Japan, Floating
Beauty
OCHRE DANCING
Porcelain
plant pot
plots
the delicious decay
of decadence
once eyed as ochre
dancing
next to dandelions
in the dawn’s dew.
Pretty
painted picture
of plants
in a porcelain pot
plays with the presence
of past
and present
under the preservation
of pressed paint.
Gold garnered
by the grace
of the sun,
amber’s earthiness
on route
to autumn’s rust,
careful creation
caught
on canvas,
a fragile folly
frozen
before
the fall.
Words and oil painting by Damien B, Donnelly
23rd poem for National Poetry Writing Month
ENTANGLEMENTS
There is beauty
and there is decay,
they are gardeners of the same plot,
seeking sustenance from the same sun,
shade from the same soil,
one awaits the wonder of the weather,
the other;
weathered by her ticking thunder.
There is beauty
and there is decay,
they are inseparable,
one holding fast to its height,
the other;
falling fast through its fragility
and in between
their entanglements
is left life
until that, one day, leaves.
All words and photography by Damien B. Donnelly
FRAMING FRANCE; STRASBOURG
–
Last weekend, possibly the final weekend of glorious sunshine for another year, we went to Strasbourg, the final birthday celebration, a city that is fully French, was once German for almost 50 years and is now filled with pretzels, flammenkueche, and all around adorability…
And good cocktails! What? I’m Irish!!!
Seriously, I wanted to eat everywhere! And tried!
On your bike! No cars in the city centre after 11am, Joy!!!
This is an actual school, lycée! It must be for wizards!!
Saint Paul’s Reformed Church, one of the many churches along our boat tour
European Parliament 
Flammenkueche, Pizza Alsace style
Petite France area of Strasbourg, Can you imagine this with the Christmas market in full sway!!!!
We had the best sauerkraut with fish here! (Choucroute de la mer). Not from the troff!!!
Shadows within the Museum of Modern Art and below an art installation outside by Brooklyn based artistic collaboration FAILE
A moving Spider at the museum of modern Art, in top hat too!
And a goodbye from the glass modernity of Central Station
All photographs by Damien B. Donnelly
Friendly Friday featuring; Noises — method two madness
This is Kerfe, one of the two genius creators from MeMadTwo, Method to Madness, art expression, poetry and presence. I saw this yesterday and was blown away by its beauty both in words and visuals. Click link below to discover more…
Were I Other. Were I spoken in a different voice. Were I fallen into impossibility.
I would be like stars.
I would echo the feeling
that follows the wind.
Were I made of light. Were I pulsing like oceans. Were I to open as wide as never and nothing.
I would radiate
rainbows. I would paint moments
with sound. Fill absence.
THE BURDEN OF BEAUTY
I walk under the bloom
As branches bend with beauty,
Not all perfection is weightless,
Even the blossom must bare its
Burden upon a branch
All words and photographs by Damien B. Donnelly
SEASONAL CYCLES
–
Winter’s withering winds
rustle through berry’s blossom
in the gentle dawn, falling
on these days of the daffodil.
I walk by wild water
in a world wild of will.
Bloom beneath spring
summer; a blanket beautiful,
seasons are cycles,
sweet that song from seed to stone.
All words by Damien B. Donnelly influenced by the lunchtime magnetic poetry oracle
LONG DAYS
Beauty bays
in the back gardens
of concrete
we’ve created,
simplicity shouting
from the shadows
of cites under siege,
precious petals
pulsing with potential,
lines of light longing
add contrast to contour,
like age adds interest.
Long days, lonely,
waiting to be witnessed
by more than just
the falling rain…
We all are beauty,
bending to the light,
bursting to be seen.
All words and photographs by Damien B. Donnelly
Inspired by a Twitter poetry prompt from #ShapePoetry
I CAME TO THE CITY, PART 13; CAPTURE BEAUTY
Beauty is breathtaking
where breath is less
and beauty is all.
Beauty is breathtaking
before it’s been taken from you,
then we are no longer bound to blind
and breath is less and less and less.
We breathe in beauty
in excess
as if it were endless,
as if we were never bound to be less and less and less.
We are chalk
marked for a rainstorm.
We breathe beauty with every breath,
with every kiss caught from lip’s press,
we press beauty into flesh,
flesh fresh on beauty that is fleeting.
Kiss him back,
Kiss her again
before it’s gone.
‘Kiss me,’ she whispers with eyes eager
and he kisses her eyes
and her lips grow eager
to feel the beauty that is breathless,
that draws in each breath, less and less and less.
We are not bound to be endless,
we are chalk
marked for the rain storming in the distance.
And so we press more and more and more
falling into the fragile fold
that holds beauty as it is falling,
for we are falling
into life,
into lust,
into love,
into loss,
into all that will fade
when the rainstorm has fallen,
for we all are fragile.
Capture beauty
before the breath grows less and less and…
All words and mini college by Damien B. Donnelly
All poems/visuals in this series are inspired by the artistry of Joni Mitchell.
Audio version available on Soundcloud:
IN THE BOX; BOUND
Imagine beauty
bundled in a box,
locked from light
and bound to blindness,
imagine your eyes
banished to its bounty
while it smothers in silence,
deep in the darkness.
Imagine freedom
in that very box,
bound, blind
and banished.
Imagine strength
deprived of that force,
see it tampered, tainted
and tarnished.
The refugee
on the road
holds hope
in a box bound,
breathless for the day
it can be opened.
All words and photographs by Damien B. Donnelly
Inspiration came from the poetry prompt ‘Box’ from @Microprompt on Twitter.
Audio version available on Soundcloud:
Damien B. Donnelly 