Just a dreamer

Today I made a mistake

Tomorrow I will learn a lesson

Yesterday I had a dream

My travelling tales

My smile lines

My tear stained cheeks

Failed to be fortunate

Fortunate to have failed

Fostering formidable foundations

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. Just a dreamer speaks to the quiet resilience of becoming — reframing failure, memory and aspiration as the very material from which a fuller, wiser self is made.

This poem is available as a contemporary poetry print on textured recycled card.

Coming home

After the storm has passed

The devastation is there for all to see

How does one rebuild from rubble?

If the rubble will not rise

What lays in ruin was weak

Rebuild a new configuration

One from strength and hope

Forming new beginnings

Look at past mistakes

Pass through this passage

An enlightened future awaits

Reflections foster a better life

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. Coming home speaks to renewal after collapse — suggesting that what survives devastation is not the old structure itself, but the chance to rebuild a life on stronger, wiser and more hopeful foundations.

No box to tick

Don’t try and define me

In your definition of me I will not be found

I do not fit in a box of containment

I have not four equal sides

I have jagged edges

Extending in directions of their own

In new directions I find unexpected strength

For they are the direction of mine only

The contradictions are marvellous

Imprinting individual marks

The makeup of wonderment

A changeable and expanding soul

Searching the sphere for contentment

The body vessel does not define

For it is a spiritual quest to fulfill

A sense that is intangible

But as real as you and I

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. No box to tick speaks to the irreducible complexity of identity — rejecting confinement, easy labels and imposed definitions in favour of a self that is fluid, contradictory and spiritually alive.

This poem is available as a contemporary poetry print on textured recycled card.

What a pity

The sand slipped through the hand

It was in the grasp

But with careless abandon it was lost

The weight of it went unnoticed

In a busy world that whizzes by

Distracted by so much noise

No quiet space to contemplate

What true intention knew

The gap would give way

And takeaway any chance

To hold together and mould

A solid base to stand strong

On the sand that could

Have built the stone

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. What a pity speaks to the quiet tragedy of neglect — how what might have become lasting and foundational can be lost through distraction, carelessness and a failure to recognise its value in time.

This poem is available as a contemporary poetry print on textured recycled card.

The nature of creation

I sway in the tree of dreams

Far from the ground of harsh realities

This freedom comes to mind

From a view seldom seen today

The peaceful breeze carries me,

away in a daydream

Into a new world of discovery

How refreshing it is to breathe

Deep, with no sense to hurry

The man-made deadline absent

In the nature of time aligned

In space this was created

To set the centre stage alive

This is the place to visit to remind

The mind where it ‘set in motion’

The imaginative exploration for tomorrow

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. The nature of creation speaks to imagination as a restorative force — suggesting that true creativity begins where urgency falls away and the mind is free to return to wonder, rhythm and possibility.

This poem is available as a contemporary poetry print on textured recycled card.

Welfare diversion

The hand that was drawn up

Forging a way for equality

Lifting up the downtrodden

To gaze on a new horizon

One full of possibilities

Only equality can deliver as progress

Slowly now this hand withdraws from need

Lending itself to a wealth of misdirection

Pushing down the desire to rise

Against a machine that counts

Human suffering as profitable

Herding contemporary slaves to order

This violence goes by deprived of need,

insisting in its legitimacy

While denying legitimate needs existence

Scorning welfare with such triumph

The hand of need falls down in shame

So the welfare cuts become entrenched

An easy diversion to subsidies

Into an ever narrowing wealth pocket

That will hold the helping hand captive

Crumbling democracy in its tight grip

Fading is the social design to support

The protection of a safety net 

And the demise will not spare 

The separation of the enterprise

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. Welfare diversion speaks to the political betrayal of social care — exposing how systems built to uphold equality are hollowed out when public need is sacrificed to protect private wealth and entrenched power.

This poem is available as a contemporary poetry print on textured recycled card.

52

52 weeks I will have waited

For the man in green

In the middle of the field

6 minute allotments

Never enough to finish

Even one conversation

We live worlds apart

But tarred by the same brush

I wonder who you are now

The man I never knew

The time goes slow

Visits took two days of travel

And one week of recovery

Time was counted 

Down by months

Until the day will come

When my time will be done

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. 52 speaks to the long ache of separation shaped by institutional control — where love, identity and belonging are reduced to brief, inadequate fragments of time.

The alien refugee

I am told they are not found

Until at least a human tries to flee

From one land across a sea

Then the threat is unreal

The guns come out to greet

These humans from the same planet

The alien now declared real

These illegal aliens with human hearts

Travelling to seek refuge

From a home unsafe to stay

Saddened to need a new home

Unlucky to find the lucky may not share

This shared planet earth

With plenty to share in diversity

Amongst a group of human beings

But no aliens live here on Earth

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. The alien refugee speaks to the dehumanising language used against those seeking safety — exposing the cruelty of turning fellow human beings into outsiders on a planet that belongs to us all.

This poem is available as a contemporary poetry print on textured recycled card.

Experience forms understanding

Never forget the sum of who we become

Is life experience in additions

Adding advantage or disadvantage with prejudice

This collected sum of knowledge,

Can be disconcerting when in context

As exposure to experience is individual

And individual knowledge is limited

The view may only expand in this knowledge

Humanity becomes the tool of choice

Weaving together this patchwork to connect

Creating a join in these experiences

Where dominance by one patch cannot be

As the whole story is only revealed

When the quilt is spread out on even ground

And the quilt of humanity becomes shared

By the warmth of understanding 

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. Experience forms understanding speaks to empathy as something built, not assumed — suggesting that only by honouring the uneven realities of lived experience can a fuller, more humane understanding emerge.

This poem is available as a contemporary poetry print on textured recycled card.

Renting time

Time our most valuable commodity

With an unknown expiry date

So what is your time worth trading for?

The expenditure for reward is the value determination

Rarely does the negotiation reach this degree

Instead the lucky ones hang this degree

Displaying how fortunate they were

To have this time to spend

Should not this commercial exchange

At least afford time to live well

With a roof, a meal and in good spirits

And do not forget that time

Should not be exchanged for suffering

It is just a short-term rental

Which should be returned by good care

Never to be enslaved by denial of dignity

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. Renting time speaks to the moral value of labour and life itself — questioning a world in which human time is traded without guaranteeing dignity, care or the basic means to live well.

I am saddened to have grown

I wish I could be that child again

The one that believed good prevails

Even though it was the same one

that learnt it was not so

Bring back Santa Claus

with his good cheer

For the one that rewards good deeds

is the one I can revere

But he was no more real

than the good deeds appeal

For now I have to know this burden

but what to do with it I do not know?

I have never learnt to live well

in this ‘cruel world’ and now I am delayed

I wonder about those who do,

and who was their teacher?

Are these the ‘growing pains’

they so casually speak of?

If so spare me this pain

for I cannot bare to become

the monster under the bed

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. I am saddened to have grown speaks to the grief of innocence lost — mourning the painful transition from childhood faith to adult moral awareness, while resisting the hardening that cruelty so often demands.

This poem is available as a contemporary poetry print on textured recycled card.

The day has passed me by (not to try)

In the years that have passed by

Time always seemed to be behind

At 15 I was too old to try

At 30 I was just old

Now the time really does go by

Without regard for what you do

Passing by lost opportunities

On a slideshow of what could have been

‘Walk don’t run’ your time is now

In the only present moment that matters

These are ‘The Good Old Days’,

Even when they’re not

This is the day that passed by without regret

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. The day has passed me by (not to try) speaks to the fragile relationship between time, regret and self-permission — reminding us that life is not recovered through nostalgia, but inhabited through the courage to meet the present as it is.

This poem is available as a contemporary poetry print on textured recycled card.

Don’t take me to be a fool

I too know this game you play

The illusion of the unseen,

But only by the eye

Intuition plays here too

Untangled is the fact in fiction 

While fiction lays tangled in itself

Inescapable from the fact that it is fiction

Fiction tells a lot about the truth

Truth the fear of fools

Who narrate without care for it

Consequence is a patient force

Sneaking up on the fools that fooled themselves

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. Don’t take me to be a fool speaks to the tension between deception and discernment — asserting that truth may be obscured by performance, but never fully escapes the quiet intelligence that recognises it.

Encouragement

The proof that nobody

ever did anything alone

the secret ingredient

that all success needs

the words that make 

you believe 

that what you hold

is the real thing

worthy of beholding

It can be the one

comment that will uplift

the worthless to

take a seat 

at the table 

and share their gift

Teachers know this 

cheer well and use it

to restore to the lost

their something

unique to love

It is this simple

this kindness

that takes the courage

from encouragement

and serves it to

the best of abilities

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. Encouragement speaks to the transformative power of affirmation — showing how simple, generous recognition can awaken courage, restore worth and help a person bring their gift fully into the world.

What would you say if you knew?

What would you say

if these were the last

words to pass between

the last moments to share

before everything changed

take these moments with care

for there are things 

that we cannot know 

precious moments pass quickly

into the memories

of either regrets

or cherished times,

so take the time 

bite the tongue

embrace the heart

leave it on a note

that will play

sweetly for many

years to come

for you may not

know this will be…

the end

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. What would you say if you knew? speaks to the fragile finality that shadows human connection — urging tenderness, restraint and emotional honesty in the moments we too easily assume will return.

This poem is available as a contemporary poetry print on textured recycled card.

Fear of failure

That stone that stopped

The stepping stone

From being thrown

And lay instead

Trying not to sink

Not wanting to go under

Fear of exposure

Has stalled this stone

The lack of motion

Blocking the passage

That passes down

This river of marvels

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. Fear of failure speaks to the paralysis of self-doubt — the way fear can halt movement before life has even had the chance to carry us toward growth, risk and discovery.

Love

Love all that is beautiful

Love all that is ugly

So that love is all that remains

In a happy state of mind

A matter of choice

Love cancels out hate

Hate cancels out love

Which is the lighter load?

Carry one or the other

Befriend the heavy one

To lighten both loads

And love the journey together

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. Love speaks to love as a conscious moral practice — one that embraces complexity, softens division and offers a lighter, more humane way of moving through the world.

This poem is available as a contemporary poetry print on textured recycled card.

Public opinion

This interchangeable mood

In the dark, it is dark

In the light, the mood lightens

The change of perspective is costly

The bids are high, owned and operated

Guided to inform identity

Without respect to identifying one’s own

Thoughtful consideration stopped, as the idea was given

Without time to stop and ask who, where and why?

The idea is adopted as one’s own

Was this a gift or a ‘Trojan Horse’?

This idea that was given without the personal touch

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. Public opinion speaks to the manufactured nature of collective belief — exposing how identity and perspective can be quietly shaped by forces that present influence as information and persuasion as thought.

Asleep at the wheel

To tired to lift the head

To see the crash ahead

The enchanting lullaby

 Playing in the background

The collective cannot rise

Their tired eyes

Their job is done

Please take the wheel

The yawning will fall

Lost in a sleepwalk

Summoning a release that will not come

Blissful unconsciousness will not last a mile

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. Asleep at the wheel speaks to the danger of collective exhaustion — a state in which passivity, distraction and depleted agency leave people vulnerable to drifting blindly toward harm.

Artful way

The process starts to explore

Colours outside the perimeter

Made in thoughtful stages

Mistakes are most welcome

Sudden unexpected delight

The shapes start to form

As it comes into focus

The process must go on

For the things that were

Not known until

A scribble was crafted

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. Artful way speaks to creation as a process of discovery — embracing uncertainty, error and intuition as the very conditions through which something meaningful comes into form.

This poem is available as a contemporary poetry print on textured recycled card.