water

STILL STANDING, day 21 of A Month with Yeats

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Day 21 for Jane Dougherty’s A Month with Yeats and today’s quote is: ‘…by water among the trees the delicate-stepping stag and his lady sigh’ —W.B. Yeats

My poem is called STILL STANDING

 

Stag standing

where the river

still ripples,

where the wind

still whips the waves,

where the trees

still twist and turn.

Stag standing

as his lady

lets slip a sigh.

Stag standing,

observing

all that man

once had at his feet.

Stag still standing,

in silent hommage

to the beauty

man once tried to beat.

 

All words and photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

UNDER THE BRIDGES 

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We build bridges to cross trenches;
trouble, treachery, tyranny,
to cut across life’s inconveniences;
cuts and cries and crisis,
we cross bridges to build beliefs;
I will, I wish, I want,
discarding ties and loves deceased;
I lost, I left, I let go,
holding out for a life that’s better;
bolder, bigger, brighter,
hoping now for love that’s righter;
safer, surer, stronger.

I want to wade into the water,
want the waves to push me harder,
I want to catch the crush of the current,
to fight to find the will, the warrant,
to comprehend the deepest parts,
the push, the pull, the hurt, the hearts,
to understand the fuss, the force,
to know how the river finds it course.

Darker, steeper, deeper,
the longing to linger longer.

 

All words and photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

 

 

LITHE LIGHT

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Worries
wash away
on the water,
watch them whisper,
whimper and wither
on the waves,
on summer nights
under fading lights.

Watch worries wash away
leaving lithe light to linger,
to illuminate a longing
for all that is yet to come.

Words and photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

RELEASED

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As you
walked away
I watched you
curve through the current
of confusion that had
consumed us.

Once torn on the tide,
I waded out to let our worries
wash off on the waves
as a breeze buried its breath
against my body
like the kindness
that once caressed us
and all hurt once spoken
faded like the foam now dissolving

All words and photograph by Damien B. Donnelly

Inspired by a Twitter poetry prompt by #SenseWrds

THIS CAN BE PARADISE

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All tides,
like time,
trickle away,
all thoughts
are tempered towards forgotten,
all hold;
to the harbour of has been.
All waters
wash through rivers
to find the ocean.

We are water
washing through paths,
plotting our way
towards that dream
of paradise.

Today we are hope floating,
tomorrow; no more
than faded memories.

Build paradise
along the path
and not just in the dream.

All words and photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

Based on a Twitter poetry prompt from #ShapePoetry

STILL WATER 

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We were like water:
rushing, rubbing
against bed and bank,
running; to get to nowhere,
not knowing where,
not knowing
we were already there.
We were like water;
no longer running,
our tale
withering on the river.

All words and photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

THE DEPTH UNDER THE MOON

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Moonlight
melts
languidly
on liquid lakes

like suds on dishes
like snow on windows

like thicker skin over age old scars.

Moonlight
floats
momentarily
on rippling reflections

like the tingle after kisses
like the scent after sex

like the pain after parting.

Moonlight
flirts on the water

to divine
whether the depth

is worth the dive.

 

All Words and Photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

BENEATH THE SKIN

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I         You         Us
being so much water
and yet the lucky
do not drown
in the very essence
of what they are

I         You         Us
we are all oceans sunk beneath the surface of the skin

I         You         Us
so much water
beneath the skin,
we are movement
cast out
to current curiosity

I         You         Us
all movement
like ripples on the water
and we are water,
and we are as deep
as we dare
to dive

I         You         Us
daring divers
discovering our own
essence in the depths,
the lucky ones rising
like waves,
washing upon the shores of our world

I         You         Us
so capable of watering our waning world.

All Words and Photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

Audio available on Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/damien-donnelly-2/beneath-the-skin

 

LIGHT IS TOO LIGHT

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Light leaks
like water
dripping from the faucet

You called me baby
before you really knew me
and stopped calling
at all, afterwards

Drip…
Drip…
Nothing.

Light lingers
in quite corners
like memories that refuse to flicker,
not acknowledging
that the night
has fallen.

We pour over each other
like liquid
on a perched desert,
sucking sustenance from substance,
leaching life
from any length

Dryer…
Dryer…
Death.

I dived deep down
to the bottom
and found only a drought
drowning on the ocean floor.

Were you the desert
or the drought?

Was I the ocean
or merely drowning?

Bubble…
Bubble…
Nothing.

Light lifts
the illusions
we sleep upon
beneath the darkness,
when everything is possible
and no one ever parts.

i am not one part us,
i am not one part you,
i am not one or the other,
I am the I that was your baby.

Remember?

I was light, you said
in the midst of so much weight
but you remained
light on love
regardless.

Light leaks
like dripping water from a faucet

Drip…
Drip…

onto the broken plates
and half eaten hopes
that cannot be either
washed or erased.

Light
is too light
to lift the stains
from the remains
of what began with the words

I want to drown in your eyes…

Light frequently floods
the flaccid lies we feed ourselves
just so we can get from day to night.

All Words and photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

BLUE BRIDGES

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A bridge in blue
between me and you
no car can carry me
no boat can bare me
no bike can bring me

closer.

A bridge in blue
between me and you
too deep to dare
too cold to consider
too close for comfort

all connection crushed by the current.

 

All Words and Photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

Amsterdam at Sunset