DAWN ARRIVED

18/08/201616/03/2019 / deuxiemepeau / 6 Comments

And so light leaned in as we had done
though not for fever, though not for fun,

although we had found and we had felt
that rarest gift which cannot be shun;

on one fair night a love alighted
when two from far took their breath as one,

yet Time, being so when love slips in,
seeks all connections to come undone,

when the dawn arrived, shrouded in shame,
born to tear apart what had begun,

she pleaded with the light unfolding
but hearts lost hold for the day had won.

All words by Damien B. Donnelly

STILL NIGHT

31/07/201625/01/2018 / deuxiemepeau / Leave a comment

Still night,

still light
in corners
not yet caressed
by shadows,

in thoughts
not yet crushed
by dreams

that will never
see the light,

that stilled light
that lingers

beneath
the stillness
of the night.

All Words and Photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

A YEAR IN THE GREEN WINDMILL

17/07/201616/08/2021 / deuxiemepeau / 3 Comments

One year ago today, an Irishman on the doorstep of 40, moved from Amsterdam to Paris, to rue du moulin vert, street of the green windmill. The apartment was perfect but in need to a little loving…

A year later, the love is felt…

All decor and photographs made with love by Damien B. Donnelly

THE BENCH ALONG THE WAY

25/06/201620/06/2016 / deuxiemepeau / 10 Comments

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

CHASING THE DAWN

18/05/201625/01/2018 / deuxiemepeau / 1 Comment

I’m flying though time,
drawing on daylight
to the west of me
while in the east
darkness descends,
the light already shadow,
the sun already set
but here, by the heavens,
there is only more and more
light, a day without dusk,
a journey without ending
yet I am not ageless.

I’m flying through time,
drawing on daylight
that rests with me
as west takes east,
courting cotton clouds
that blow through blues,
couriers of careful candy
we cut through curiously
and climb upon cautiously
as altitude tests turbulence
while I know nothing is certain
and I am not ageless.

I’m flying through time,
gaining hours on hours,
unending light from the sun
teasing, while the moon
is missing from movement,
I’ve seen sky slide into sea
seamlessly caressing currents,
I’ve seen sinking sands seep
from salt spits and dissolve,
to rise and shine and die,
while I chase the sun
but I am not ageless.

All Words and Photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

Audio available on Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/damien-donnelly-2/chasing-the-dawn

PAIRINGS AND PARTINGS

09/04/201625/01/2018 / deuxiemepeau / 8 Comments

All words and artwork by Damien B. Donnelly

THE COMFORT OF THE SHADOWS

01/04/201616/03/2019 / deuxiemepeau / 9 Comments

Screen Shot 2016-03-23 at 00.58.03

I seek out silence
as I settle in the shadows,
as I settle in the darkness,
as the darkness drowns me in its silence.
I seek out comfort,
I seek out solace,
a space safe from sonic stimulants
escaping sound
beneath the silence,
a refuge from the rage
that roars within my head,
raging, roaring, raiding reason,
cover me in comforting cradles
until unconsciousness carries me off.
I lean into nothing,
the soothing embrace of the nothingness
blanketed within the darkness,
l lean in to draw breath,
I lean in to draw silence from these hands
no longer holding pencils, painting pictures,
painting words in lyrical lines.
I seek to draw distractions
from this piling pressure
that towers over me,
that topples down on me,
that trembles tap tap on my temples,
trembles, trembles,
a terrific torture, torture, torture
pounding, pounding, pounding, pounding.
I seek shelter from the weight that weighs against neck,
that climbs over blood and bone,
that steals sight from eye
and human from head.
I seek comfort
in the silence of the all-encompassing darkness
and wait for the suffocating pounding to stop.

All Words and Photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

SHINING SHADOWS

03/03/201625/01/2018 / deuxiemepeau / 7 Comments

And so falls
a fleet of rain,
another sheet
to soak the street,
another sheen
to shine up shadows,
to wash away the steps
others have taken
along your paths,
to wash the traces
of all that came before.

And so falls
a ray of light,
another shimmer
of the summer,
another colour
to coat the concrete,
to sink into skin,
to bronze bodies
and burn away
the whimpers and whines,
to forget the sorrows
and let the shadows shine.

All words and photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

LINGER LIGHT, LONGER

02/03/201601/03/2016 / deuxiemepeau / 5 Comments

Linger
longer
in this light,
this fragile luminosity,
let me be your curiosity,
shun the shadows for sadder days
for more somber sighs when it’s again the time to cry

but for now

linger
longer
in this light,
in this simplicity,
this momentary tranquility,
entreat me your tenderness,
your warm caress against my being, my body

linger
longer
on the faces,
the passing faces,
the faces of people pacified,
of people satisfied in this light,
in this sun where shadows sat before
where shadows will rise again in minutes, in seconds

but for now,

it’s just light
not just light, LIGHT
radiant LIGHT casting reflections
on what has been and what can be
on what is probable and all that is possible.

Linger
longer LIGHT
Oh lovely LIGHT.

All words and photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

Photographs taken on Ile de la Grande Jatte, Paris.

HARD TO SWALLOW

07/02/201625/01/2018 / deuxiemepeau / 3 Comments

I bowed on bended knee
on foreign shores on silk cushions
where no one knew me
to an invisible deity.

Did you see me?
Did I exist for you?
Did you believe in me?
Did you exist within me truthfully, invisibly?

I bowed on bended knee
into the light that flooded the floor.

They told me once you liked floods,
you liked to send floods,
to send down your floods
I never saw it, did anyone really see it?

But they told me,
they told me as if to flood me with fear,
a flood to frighten the faithful.

I bowed in that foreign land
as the dragon’s breath drew a veil upon the sky
as if to cover the heavens from curiosity,
from temptation,
funny what rhymes with salvation,
salvation from what, from whom?

There is faith,
there is belief
and then man names it all religion.

I bowed on bended knee
within that temple that foreign temple,
it was not my temple,
I don’t build temples,
I have palaces in my head,
private palaces private places,
filled with my beliefs private,
flooded with my teared steams private,
flooded with my fate private,
my faith is not called any religion.

I bowed on bended knee
where others knelt before me
while others knelt behind me

StrangersWorshipersBelieversFaithful

foolish?

In the invisible we place our fate
in man we place our control.

Can you see them?
Can you exist for them?
Can you believe in them?
Do you exist within them honestly, truthfully?

Do you exist as I exist?

I bent and bowed I lowered my eyes,
I followed the flock of faithful foreigners
I confess it was just to conform
so as not to confront or be confronted.
I was a sheep following the shepherds
who shuffled around me
who looked at me unsure,
who wondered to themselves
if they were the sheep and I was the shepherd.
Seriously!

Seriously,
how did I end up there,
bowing on bended knee
feeling too fair and too foreign
in that place within that facade
behind that face my own facade

and I asked the light