WEEKEND POETRY PROMPTS FOR POETRY IRELAND

05/06/202005/06/2020 / deuxiemepeau / 5 Comments

Poet in Residence at Poetry Ireland Catherine Ann Cullen (@tarryathome) sets daily poetry prompts for adults and kids to keep everyone creative during the Covid pandemic and this weekend I am the guest Poetry prompter.

There are prompts for adults and for kids and you can post your poems on my link on twitter (@deuxiemepeau) or post a copy here and I will post them on twitter for you if you want to take part.

The poetry prompt (NodFilíochta in Irish) for adults is Island (oileán). Your dream escape, your home or how it feels to be currently isolated islands.

For kids the prompt is either SnowPerson (DuineSneachta) or SandCastle (CaisleánGainimh). Which would tour child build first?

Come join in the creativity or come along and read the gems by other writers. See you on Twitter for @PoetryIreland

Tweets by deuxiemepeau

THE IDENTITY OF AN ISLANDER

23/10/201922/10/2019 / deuxiemepeau / 8 Comments

Entity. Identity. I identify. Running gives no reason
until you run out of places to hide. Identity. I identify.
I recognise now what it means to be connected. A continent
can be chaos. An island doesn’t have to isolate. I. Island.
I can identify as an entity of this island. I didn’t hear them
telling me the truth. I didn’t know they knew me before I did.

I tore through tracks; teenager, twenties, thirties, I am tired
now, my trainers have taken to the tide. I am sand again,
ready to be cast upon beach, I want to be a grain in this garden
I was ground upon. I was barren of breath. I choked, drowned
in an ocean that wasn’t mine to begin with, we can bare too much
as well as being blind to all there is to see. I see now, this entity.
I was split once, by what I dreamed of and what I already had.
I see now, how this island, this entity, held my identity. Whole.

All words and photographs by Damien B Donnelly

SCENES FROM SOUTH KOREA, JEJU, PART 5,000

02/07/201816/08/2021 / deuxiemepeau / 8 Comments

And finally we fly to Jeju Island, home to blue seas, lava tubes, volcanos, sunsets and tangerines…

A fisherman at the beach

Blue sea, white sand and volcanic rock

Seongsan Volcano, World Heritage Site

Seongsan Volcano, we climbed at 4.30am to watch the sunrise

Cloudy sunrise!

Drying shallots along the road

Manjanggul Lava Tube caves, UNSECO World Heritage Site

Manjanggul Lava Tube caves

Along the Olle Trail, Jeju has 26 hiking trails

In the frame, Hallasan Mountain in the background

Carved from volcanic rock

Fruit Market and Tangerines

The Mother of mushrooms

Tangerines and strange shaped lemon coloured melons

Seowipo

Me, braced with braces!

Tribute to the women divers of Seowipo, some of whom are in their 80’s

Breakfast with garden views, a childfree garden. Seriously! There was a sign!

Ferry to Gaopdo, an island as flat as a pancake

The little village on Gapodo island

I want to go to this school!

Ferry Terminus

Lunch in a shell.

Stone Guards of Jeju City

Colorful transport

Hotel corridor, Seowipo, Sumorum Hotel

Balacony with a view, Sumorum Hotel

Arario Museum of modern art, also one in Seoul

Arario Museum

And the sunset begins on the holiday

And goodnight South Korea

All photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

4TH JULY: NO MAN IS AN ISLAND

04/07/201616/08/2021 / deuxiemepeau / 4 Comments

It may feel like winter in Paris and I may be rubbing Vicks into my chest while my nose runs like a tap from a so-called Summer (Man)Flu but these pictures recall a perfect summer when a Dutch girl and an Irish man cycled to Brooklyn and took the circle line under the bridges of New York City. We also met Winnie the Pooh in the Library! Happy 4th of July to all the Americans out there (except for Mr.Trump)

Bridges remind us that no man is an island…

All Photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

Winnie the Pooh (the Original) also says Happy 4th July

(he lives in the New York Public Library)

Below is the Dutch girl and the Irish boy driving through the library:

PICTURING PARADISE

14/05/201614/05/2016 / deuxiemepeau / 18 Comments

Turks and Caicos Islands, Caribbean Paradise…

Planning, preparing, passports, departing, tempests, delays, more in light movies, more gin and tonics, detours, Paris- Miami- Charlotte (North Carolina- I now know where that is)-Providenciales, Turks and Caicos, airports, arrivals, heat, humidity, heaven, hotels, typical storms, floods, best friends, new friends, beautiful people, wedding, tears, laughter, dancing, drinking, conch shells, boat cruises, embarrassing snorkelling attempts (me), sand dollar shell hunting (bliss), joy, sunsets, happiness… Paradise…