A NEW BEGINNING

 

Is that a day
still to come
birthing in the distance
rising through the stillness
writing on the heavens
the joy we’ve yet to know?

Is that a beacon
blazing bright
a siren for survivors
a moment for the missing
a reason to believe
the pain can fade with night?

Is that a hope
finding hold
on a city that needs saving
by a river that’s been crying
in a year that needs forgiving
Is this the light of a new beginning?

All words and Photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

KISS HIM

 

‘Kiss me
before the light fades
into the dream of what once was’
she pleads.

Kiss him
and fall,
and then look for him, let her look for him,
falling through the fine hold of false hope
as he moves off
to twist through other sheets.

Kiss him
and he is gone
evaporated in a lips touch
not a minute more than much
and yet she looks for him
she still looks for him
as if his breath were traceable
as if his touch was reachable
as if his promise
was trustable

Kiss him
but once
and watch her fall,
identity,
like the dream of what once was,
lost in a single kiss
drowning in dreams that follow
as he moves on
to other dreams
to shatter
with that same kiss.

‘Kiss me,’ she pleads
as the dream finds light and bleeds
onto the folds
in the empty space
on the bed
beside her.

All Words by Damien B. Donnelly

Audio version available on Soundcloud:

HANGING ON HAPPY SONGS

 

We hang ourselves whole
by the ropes that we weave
into wishes, veins that vie
like vines by the nooses
we knot around necks,
twisted and tangled
around muscle and tissue
that dries no tears. We
are stained with the tears
the years have taught us
to play with. We try to play
happy songs on hardened hearts
than cannot be healed, cutting
ourselves on cords too costly
to be constant, too broken
to be buoyant.

We hang ourselves whole
thinking hope can fill the hole.

All Words and Photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

Audio version available on Soundcloud:

ACCEPTING UNCERTAINTY

 

If this is love
then ask no questions
I cannot answer

so disappointment
cannot distract us
from determination.

Accept the uncertainly
of this rocky road
set out before us

so doubt does not
divine disaster
before it dissolves us.

See today as the future
and tomorrow a bonus

least time tests us
with what has yet to be

and teases us with what
we wasted yesterday.

All Words and Photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

Audio version available on Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/damien-donnelly-2/accepting-uncertainly

 

IF

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If
I had wings
the skies would have no limits
if
I had fins
the seas would have no depth
if
I had trust
the clouds could not delude me
if
I had belief
the currents could not drown me

but
I am man
and bound to faults and fears
but
I have eyes
that cannot see through the tears
but
I have feet that tire of walking
but
I have arms that cannot always reach

the things I want to touch
the places I want to see
the person I want to be

and yet
I have a heart

that’s fuelled on hope.

All Words and Photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

Audio version available on Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/damien-donnelly-2/if

 

WHITE STARLIGHT

 

White starlight
light and lucent
springs from
ailing earth
in quite corners
of tended borders
so fine and fair,
fragility unfolding
precious petals
perhaps to soften
the edges
of darker days
that have set
shadows upon
so many sunsets

White starlight
cradles beauty,
a bold beacon
blooming amid
these burdens
that bind us
To broken branches,
she’s taking chances
ripe and rare
like subtle silk,
like flowing milk,
so bright and brave
to dare to bloom
amidst these months
of doom and gloom

White starlight
in broad daylight,
a wonder witnessed
among this world
of weeds
and tangled vines
that strangle
the timid
and the truth.

White starlight.
fear not fragility
for she is
born to fight.

All Words and Photographs by Damien B. Donnelly.

 

ELEMENTS

 

In the uncertainty
between the darkness
and the dawn
there is the gentle dream
of what might
one day
unfold,
in the wings
of the new born bird,
with feathers still unfurling,
there is the fear
of that first flight
still to be flown,
in the page
that rests before me
there is a story
begging to be told
between the weaving
of words
I’ve yet to find,
in the first kiss
I place on your lips
you may taste
the real truth
of why
one day
I’ll have to
let you go,
in every house
not yet a home
there are walls
newly mounted
waiting for memories
to fill in
the cracks
already forming,
in the taxi
we took together
to somewhere
since forgotten
I held your hand
and thought
of someone else
long departed,
in the woman,
not yet a mother,
breathes the ties
already tethered
to the child
she’s yet to bare,

in the waters
broken with new birth,
in the air
that echoes our secrets,
in the fire
that drives our desires,
on this earth
that we tear through in taxis

there are songs

we’ve never heard
we’ve never known
we’ve not yet rejected

still waiting to be sung.

All Words and Photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

Photograph taken in Tarragona Zoo, over looking Sydney Harbour, Sydney, NSW.

Audio version available on SoundCloud:

https://soundcloud.com/damien-donnelly-2/elements

THE BENCH ALONG THE WAY

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And the leaves
leaned back

by the bench
beneath the branches

to let the light
linger longer

on the memory
now maintained

when two sat together

and dreamed
of the distance

they had yet
to discover.

All Words and Photography by Damien B. Donnelly

Photograph taken in the Jardin du Palais-Royal, Paris

BEACHES BROKEN

 

I’m chasing 
beaches broken 
slipping in between sands sinking 
feet in search of footing firm
contemplating connections
between the sand and sea
as if to find reflections 
between the land and me.

I’m chasing 
beaches broken 
slipping in between sands sinking
watching tides through time trickle
dividing and subtracting
what’s lost and left to see
as if they’re reenacting 
what the years made of me.

I’m chasing
beaches broken
slipping in between sands sinking
currents coming to covet
corrections and corrosions
that trickle out to sea
along with the illusions
of who I thought I’d be.
I’m chasing
beaches broken
slipping in between sands

sinking

skipping over shallow streams

dissolving

while holding on to hope.

 

All Words and Photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

Audio version available on Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/damien-donnelly-2/beaches-broken