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.

About that bird that sings

Bold and true

Beautiful abandonment

Belonging to just a few

Behold its sweet song of sorrow

Whistling at winds of change

The spotter on the lookout

Shot down by denial

Such is the disgrace

The hunter’s rifle smokes

As it chokes out that flame

The fanfare never arrived

For that song bird that whistled so true

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. About that bird that sings speaks to the silencing of truth-tellers — those rare voices whose beauty and courage unsettle a world more comfortable with denial than change.

The unknown

From our small speck of stardust

I must confess how little is known

Not even enough is known of the speck

That travels in this vastness

We once traveled to the moon

But alas only as a contest

Once the game was won

The fun never began

Directed towards the inconsequential

On an unsustainable speck

In a world that explores destruction

No glory will be found

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. The unknown speaks to humanity’s failure of vision — our tendency to pursue conquest over wisdom, even as we remain profoundly ignorant of the fragile world we inhabit

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

Constantly entertained

How often do you hear

The wind whirl

See leaves swirl

As thoughts go unremarked

The engine searches at speed

While the mind slows to stop

Switched on to switch off

Images dance across as fairytales

What happens next?

Record, play, pause, stop

What was just missed?

Constantly distracted life goes on

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. Constantly entertained speaks to the erosion of presence in a distracted age — a life so saturated by noise and motion that the quiet intelligence of the world passes by unnoticed.

Nothing new

In the games we play

Boring and restrictive

With dramatic endings

How much time is wasted?

The meaning of it all

Is only the meaning you give

Played out all over the world

Practiced ‘time and time again’

Is it only to play big

in this large expanse?

To feel ‘larger than life’

or just alive?

Why not dance together

under the starlight?

For the small

Have quite a view

At this ‘game of life’

The game controller is universal

It will never be controlled by fools gold

So why play the fools game

When you can live a life of your own

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. Nothing new speaks to the emptiness of inherited social games — urging a more conscious, self-directed life shaped by wonder, freedom and genuine human connection rather than hollow ambition.

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

‘Rainbows and sunshine’

I live in this world at times

When it is quiet and I am inside

Joy floats by like a butterfly

Beautiful, small and fragile

Today is a good writing day

The air is fresh

And the coffee is warm

Even the chores help with their simple rhythm

Slow motion of nature

takes control

Resisting human nature

to hasten the pace

Everyday moments

Delight in

No meaning to find

Enjoy them

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. ‘Rainbows and sunshine’ speaks to the quiet abundance of ordinary life — those fleeting, restorative moments in which stillness, attention and gratitude become their own form of meaning.

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

Evil does not know its own name

For it is not criminal

This act of indifference

Played out on the vulnerabilities of poverty

Denigration the skillful ploy

Cloaks, silks and suits have used it well,

to employ a popular notion

That filth clings only to the outside

But it seeps beneath skin

Notorious lack of empathy accompanies,

the misbelief of their own mischief

As opposed to our fight for survival

Recognise the fine monster 

No apologies will do,

You must undo

The deed without understanding

Experience is fundamental to cleaning up this mess

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. Evil does not know its own name speaks to the violence of structural indifference — exposing how power disguises cruelty behind respectability while leaving the most vulnerable to carry its human cost.

Consumed

Consumed by days without joy

waiting in the feeding line

thank God the day is done,

without a second thought

to thank God for this day

fall into line, stand straight

the goods will be delivered

in pieces with no goodness inside

assemble with deliberate precision to replace

the allure of escaping into addiction

teetering on the edge of extinction

contentment the infrequent visitor…

of more is less

Until more becomes no more.

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. Consumed speaks to the hollow machinery of modern survival — where repetition, deprivation and false comforts erode the spirit until even desire begins to collapse under the weight of excess.

Blind obedience will not do

In the act of blind obedience

Do not be walked off the edge

For it is not disobedience 

To watch your step

Just the simple formulation

Of a life of our own

Free to roam and reminisce

On those silly questions…

Only fools do not ask

The past reaches forward

In a soft whisper to awaken

You have been here before

Best to open your eyes now

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. Blind obedience will not do speaks to the moral necessity of independent thought — insisting that awareness, questioning and historical memory are essential safeguards against surrendering the self.

No integrity to their written word

For I have held it up

In black and white

Watched it disintegrate

Wept over its disservice

Pondered words without meaning

With their false sense of security

Armed to discourage outrage

These words of weightless blockades

The secret code to oppose

Any chance to correct

Destructive facilities are not serviceable

As the silent witness will testify

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. No integrity to their written word speaks to the betrayal of language under institutional power — when official words are emptied of truth and used not to repair harm, but to obstruct accountability.

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