Fear

In a world ordained by mad men

I am treading water gulping for freedom

Paralysis grips the body

The struggle to move mounts

Would it be more peaceful to slip away

Call it a day and be done with it

Along the horizon the sunrise beamed

Not much of a choice

I take a breath

Release it

Find that I can stand

With support

Fear is in retreat

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. Fear speaks to the threshold between despair and endurance — tracing how support, breath and the smallest return of steadiness can begin to loosen fear’s hold in a world shaped by violence and instability.

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

Renting the dream

The roof caved in last night

Even though I had paid

Paid for your service

Paid for your dream

I barely know your name

The one I paid the way for

Your dream is my nightmare

And still I pay

Is this all we aspire to be?

Not much of a dream society

A very imperial way of being

This divisive device called rent

So many dreams are lost 

Bubbles are built to burst

That is their nature

Not human nature

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. Renting the dream reflects on the cruelty of housing as extraction — showing how the promise of security is distorted by systems that turn shelter into profit and leave one person’s dream resting on another’s instability.

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

The poor choice

Like the humidity on a hot summer day,

it clings

There is no breeze to carry it away,

no escape

Sleep is restless in these smothering conditions

That are tiresome at best and deadly at worst

How lovely it would be

For poverty to become a choice

Good options would arise

On a tidal change

Setting adrift the strain of worry

For who would choose poverty?

If they had the freedom to choose

But there lies the truth disguised

For how do you get out?

When the price of life is high

And the cost of labour cheap

Capital ideals of hypocrisy

So the sea of poverty continues to rise

Where to next?

Paid distractions seem to appease

In a market restrained from change

Until you come to know

Awoken with a fright

Like the disconcerting call

In the middle of the night

The system failure was pre-set

To snatch dignity from the worker’s hand

To shame, to silence

Leaving them to walk alone

Clutching the twenty dollar smile

How far can it go?

When all that it buys

Is just a poor choice

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. The poor choice explores the lie of poverty as personal failure — exposing how economic systems are structured to cheapen labour, erode dignity and recast injustice as if it were an individual moral shortcoming.

The real market

I woke up crying

as the machine pulled

out the life next door

unsatisfied were the owners

of number seven’s beach shack

that sat unobtrusively

they took the trees

with such ease,

these natives gave

so much shelter

now are exchanged

for a double block

of buildings that

will emit spoil

the soil is already

in protest as it

is picked up by

a howling wind

that has come

to take it away

this slope is slippery

as it falls away

without roots 

to keep it grounded

the community falls away

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. The real market considers the violence hidden within ordinary development — revealing how profit, extraction and disregard for place can erode not only the natural environment, but the deeper bonds that hold a community together.

Framed perspectives

The lights are on

But for how long?

When minds are distracted

Bodies are consumed

Fear of scarcity

There is no sanctuary

Carrots dangle around our necks

The noose gets tighter

Give it a rest

Think for awhile

Collectively shift

To thoughtfulness

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. Framed perspectives reflects on the pressures of distraction, fear and manufactured urgency — urging a collective return to thoughtfulness as a way of loosening the forces that keep people anxious, passive and constrained.

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

The gratitude poem

Thankful I am

For a thoughtful mind

A beating heart

And a searching soul

Even when the heart has bled

When hate whispers goodbye

The heart will not die

Mindfulness of the wider world transcends

From one life to another

Inscribing the human condition

When we share in life’s blessings

Abandoning the pain

 The sun comes out again

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. The gratitude poem explores thankfulness as an act of resilience — finding in tenderness, awareness and shared humanity a way to endure suffering without surrendering the heart’s capacity for renewal.

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

Hypocrisy

Small ripples drift off

Their destination unknown

You may ride the wave

But not steal the ride

Do not push in line

Then tell a lie

Hypocrisy denies

Look on the other side

Nice guys finish 

Bad guys are incomplete

The fool that fools themselves

Fails to be fulfilled

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. Hypocrisy speaks to the corrosive gap between conduct and conscience — suggesting that self-deception, dishonesty and small moral evasions diminish not only integrity, but the possibility of genuine fulfilment.

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

Breaking bread

The smell of comfort

Warmth of a loving embrace

Fuelled by community effort

Breaking to be shared

Nourishment is sliced evenly

A taste of what humanity could be

If only we chose to rise

The fundamental elements 

To a good life

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. Breaking bread reflects on shared sustenance as a simple but profound social ideal — imagining care, fairness and communal effort as the essential ingredients of a more generous and humane life.

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

Lets not pretend

Sometimes I am sad

I indulge in melancholy

Sometimes I am mad

Leaving no room for reason

Boredom too paid a visit

Then it wandered off

As if it did not care

Too vain to confess

My lesson is to let go

Note this one down

Next they come around

Emotions have an ebb and flow

The world is never still

There are days of sunshine

And days where it floods

Utopia is a fantasy

To say otherwise denies our: 

Complexity

Sorrow

Joy

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. Lets not pretend meditates on emotional honesty — resisting the fantasy of permanent ease and instead affirming sadness, anger, boredom and joy as necessary movements within the full complexity of being human.

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

Happiness

How can I know of this 

In such an uncertain place

The writing is the vessel 

Not the destination found

Will it come along the road?

Can it be learned, borrowed or bought?

I like to think the first

So many questions it stirs

While so few answers seem in tune

Harmony lost to the loudest in the room

In this quest for the treasure trove

Be warned 

It does not sparkle of gold

It seems wise to know

Happiness is the prize

Of the virtuous kind

Gifting loveliness

Love returns

Fulfilment found

Happiness is something shared

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. Happiness explores the search for fulfilment in an unstable world — suggesting that joy is not something possessed or purchased, but something cultivated through virtue, generosity and the shared exchange of love.

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

Take your time

Open new doors

Wander through possibilities

Free ideas to be in flux

No future can be carved in stone

Along shifting tides

Evermore it stands to reason

To ponder why

Take your time

‘Smell the roses’

‘Look before you leap’

Land on your feet

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. Take your time considers openness as a form of wisdom — embracing uncertainty, reflection and measured movement as the conditions through which a more grounded and thoughtful life can unfold.

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

Scar tissue

Red, angry and deep

a constant reminder

this should not have been

no hiding its ugly truth

the tell-tale sign of pain

leaving its mark

unseen but always felt

Lament for loss (cautiously)

necessary ointment

somewhat heals

the scar will soften

memory only fades so much

cradle it with care

release redundant detriment

Through the cracks

nature takes opportunities

blossoming over the damage

there is hope in healing

when we are nurtured

by an open heart

and not hidden in the dark

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. Scar tissue reflects on the afterlife of pain — recognising that while wounds may never fully disappear, tenderness, care and openness can transform damage into the ground from which healing quietly begins.

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

One Little Mistake

The world is a treacherous place

Full of pot holes and peg holes

One lapse in concentration

Down the hole you go

Spiralling out of control

Stumbling in the dark

Too scared to remark

An inner voice rouses

Hold out your hand

Take hold of humanness

Let go of the mistake

Bring only the lesson

Now be on your way

As the new day breaks

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. One Little Mistake explores the fragile moment when shame threatens to consume perspective — ultimately suggesting that compassion, humility and self-forgiveness are what allow a person to carry wisdom forward rather than remain trapped in error.

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

Out in the cold

The wind called my name

So I faced it without fear

I breathed freely in this fresh air

Sweeping away old realms

I had changed direction

I would not surrender

Feeling neither rejection nor objection

For a prize I had not sought

Contented by the warmth of my labour

The fruits never tasted so sweet

Even if a little unrefined

This is the field of dreams

Today liberty won

So leave me out in the cold

Satisfaction was paid

By releasing the flame within

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. Out in the cold speaks to the liberation of self-determined change — finding dignity, freedom and deep satisfaction not in approval or reward, but in the hard-won warmth of following one’s own inner conviction.

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

Watch your language

Words weave in and out of our lives

Hold the power to tell truth or lies

Can build a bridge or a wall

Spoken in foolishness they divide

Conveyed in understanding they unify

This is why I carry a dictionary by my side

Disassemble the literal meaning

Enfold in modern discourse

Watch to see if it holds its burden

For there is no hiding intention in expression

Misuse reveals their mark

As much as missing lines are a sign

A stranglehold has prevailed in silence

Soundbites are shoved into mouths

Conversations are polite scripts

Nothing really matters

Truth is greeted with disbelief

History is re-written

Ideologies run on repeat

Until they are believed

Narrowing options

Knowledge is lost

Watch your language

For it is the thread that binds humanity

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. Watch your language reflects on the moral and political weight of speech — tracing how language can be used to distort truth, enforce silence and narrow collective thought, even as it remains the essential medium through which human understanding is made possible.

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

Wildflower

The wind howled at it

The rain drenched

The sun blistered

Animals trampled

It dug in deeper

Emerged triumphantly

Spread its leaves of liberty

Beamed with resilient optimism

Defiant of destructive forces

Standing as the good example

The wildflower propagated

Freedom’s never-ending will

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. Wildflower explores resilience under pressure — imagining freedom not as fragility, but as a living force that strengthens through adversity and persists against attempts to crush it. There may be another hidden interpretation of this poem, which is in the line “Standing as the good example”

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

Rebellion

There were times I thought this was enough

To sustain and nourish, even flourish

I thought I could dream

Be lifted up by my own hand

Escape the shackles

Re-purpose them instead

A redesign to showcase

Kindness

A sense of what is fair

With earthly prosperity shared

The life I dreamt of seems further than the moon

A moon walk would be easier make no mistake

Living contained by a wall, ceiling or chain

When will we claim our own lives

Break down the wall and trade freely

Remove the ceiling and reach for the stars

Unlock the chain and free the mind

One question remains

When?

~ Camille Delaquise

Rebellion was published in RISE 2019. It is a call to dismantle the walls, ceilings and chains that limit human potential — and to reclaim freedom, fairness, and shared prosperity before it’s too late.

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

Wildflower

The wind howled at it

The rain drenched

The sun blistered

Animals trampled

It dug in deeper

Emerged triumphantly

Spread its leaves of liberty

Beamed with resilient optimism

Defiant of destructive forces

Standing as the good example

The wildflower propagated

Freedom’s never-ending will

-Camille Delaquise

This poem is the first poem in RISE, Camille’s 2nd poetry collection.

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

Female Voices

My voice

Sounds female

My mind

Is of the humankind

Female voices

Misogyny denied

Tried to hush

Built a barricade

Female voices

Rise

Unapologetic

For this disruption

My voice is not alone

It has been raised by the past

Connected to the present

Spoken for the future

Imagining a peaceful world

Women’s voices are heard

~ Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s 2nd poetry collection. This poem Female Voices speaks to feminist continuity — the understanding that each voice carries the strength of those who came before it. It honours intergenerational resistance and collective memory.

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

Ghosts in the machine

We live on the outside

Of locked doors

We walk on by

A mournful sigh escapes

We can see

But are never seen

Remember me

You saw no reflection

So a living wage was taken away

Dehumanising the worker

They are seen as a machine

Assembled to serve

A ghost of a being

With a face to smile

A touch that soothes

This is no machine

Now do you see?

Connections will be made

The light of the spirit flickers

So one day we will be free

~ Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in the poetry Collection RISE. This poem confronts the dehumanisation of workers in systems that reduce people to function, stripping them of dignity, visibility, and fair compensation.

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