A shiver down the spine

At two minutes to midnight

Nuclear war knocks at our door

The alarm has sounded this is not a drill

One false move and we explode

The edge of the cliff is near

Pre-positioned for maximum fear

Flags fly high on the horizon

So peace could never settle here

Divide and conquer announces the crown

A subsidiary of owned and operated

This is the war to end it all

All it took was a joker and a crook

And the earth shook for one last time

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. A shiver down the spine reflects on the manufactured brinkmanship of global power — evoking a world held hostage by fear, division and reckless authority at the very threshold of annihilation.

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

A tale of magic & mischief

Went to withdraw money today

They said your money is out on loan

Your neighbour Joe needed a home

This trade will come back 

With interest for this loan 

This is a fictional tale of course

Except neighbour Joe did get the loan

From where it appeared nobody knows

Or cares to know what they should 

Set on a default of complexity

Or so it should appear

Much like faith it disappears

No real money was loaned

It was a percentage approximately eight

Calculated from your estate

The magic CAR if you care to know

A transfer of numerical deceit

Capital Asset Ratio should be known

Much like FRB, it is a wonder we do not know

Not unlike a monopoly game 

Sometimes the money on loan is make believe

The mischief of masters in disguise

An illusion by the wilful

A trick so wicked

Even the devil will not play 

This part of the tale is real

Before you sign on the dotted line

Take stock, avoid the shock

And the misery this is for most

If you care to count

Collectively the numbers mount

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. A tale of magic & mischief explores the hidden fictions of modern finance — exposing how opacity, manufactured complexity and institutional sleight of hand can turn economic power into a system most people are made to trust, but rarely permitted to truly understand.

Choosing optimism

I have no reason to give for optimism

Other than the hope of survival

But the truth interrupts

Quickens my step and steals my breath

It has long been this way

So long I wish almost to wane

To give in, let it be done

Then I hear a small voice

I am not alone

I must go on

Until the final blow

I must stand tall

As if it makes a difference at all

It must

Or at least let it be known 

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. Choosing optimism reflects on hope as an act of conscious defiance — acknowledging despair without surrendering to it, and finding in endurance, witness and solidarity a reason to keep standing.

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

The economy is everybody’s business

Economics is the air we breathe

When all has been commoditised

There is no escaping its pollution

No wilderness untouched

No soul unscathed

Indoctrinated by ideologies

Incoherent in thought

Where is the value in a tool

That trades life to ‘make a killing’

This mechanism spreads disease as excess grows  

Free trade is a myth, the labourer cannot move

Trapped in their plot this is their plight

Rulers seize with might

The workers right to life

A life should have reward

A life should have joy

A life should have security

A life should have leisure

A life should have a chance

A life should have dignity

This is the life profit should buy

There will come a shift

When no more can be borne

Exhausted all faith

The belief will rise from within

If you dare to live a dignified life

Unified by peace, terror subsides 

Take another look, read a book 

It is not as hard as it seems

To set the human spirit free

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. The economy is everybody’s business explores economic life as a moral and political structure that reaches into every corner of existence — rejecting systems that commodify people and insisting instead on dignity, security, leisure and peace as the true measure of value.

The wind in my hair

The thing about nostalgia

It grabs you out of nowhere

Flips you on your head

Blurs your vision, trips your step

Makes you remember a past that never was

Takes you down an old road

Then leaves you there alone

At the time it feels like the summer breeze

You beg to be caught up in it

Flirt your way in

But ‘when all is said and done’

It was only a dream of what was not

Wind in my hair didn’t feel so good back then

I dreamt instead of air conditioning

So what is it that I miss

Is it the past or the present that missed the mark

It can be hard to focus looking backwards

I sweep my hair aside

Engage in the current day

And leave melancholy to the wind

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. The wind in my hair explores the seductive unreliability of nostalgia — recognising how memory can romanticise what once felt unbearable, and gently choosing presence over the distortions of looking back.

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

Relentless drudgery

The sprint is futile there is no end

Only exhaustion to keep you company

In the midnight hour sleep is awoken

Rest cannot lay on a heavy chest

Lines trace out the picture

A dark figure appears

Rips back the sheets

Work cannot wait

The weary must work on

Without pay they are hidden away

Relentless is the need of greed

And the crumbs reduce to none 

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. Relentless drudgery reflects on labour as a site of depletion under greed — revealing how exhaustion, invisibility and unpaid effort are woven into systems that demand endless work while withholding dignity and rest.

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

One percent

One percent rules the world

One percent takes almost all

One percent is all it takes

One percent is not small

Is this all there is on offer

Control by persuasion

Domination by fear

Division by hate

Is human nature so evil

All it desires is to rule

Is human nature so mindless

All it can muster is troops

Surely this is a misperception

For when the floods come

Neighbours are by your side

A sign of solidarity

Establishing civility

The good example

Spreading its wings 

Carrying unity

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. One percent considers the machinery of concentrated power — questioning narratives of fear, domination and division while insisting that solidarity, mutual care and ordinary civic goodness remain stronger truths of human life.

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

Seize the day

What if there is no god

No man to save the day

To worship, bow down to

Take you away to a kingdom

It is a sobering thought

Without a god to fall back on

This is all there may be

But then none should suffer in his name

Or wait for heaven’s door

For this day is for the making

Heaven is here on earth

We do not have long

Our energy must pass on

Continuous cycle of life

Flows through our veins

Vanity may say otherwise

But it has never been wise

The glory of life resides in each day

Made by many hands, not a single man

The day that is seized is returned

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. Seize the day explores meaning in the absence of divine rescue — affirming earthly life, shared human responsibility and the sacred urgency of making something just, generous and alive with the time we are given.

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

Little bird

In a forest without a tree

Little bird had no reason to sing

All life had been commoditised

Where is left?

For little bird to nest

Crown land or private property

Capitalise and capture

A king’s domain

The rule of law

Divine right

To own all

Trading away the world

Leaving nothing for all

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. Little bird reflects on the violence of turning the living world into property — mourning how commodification, ownership and extraction leave less and less room for fragile life to belong, shelter and endure.

The clock is ticking

How many more days will pass

Without remark, counting down

Until the clock has stopped

The moment was lost (or stolen)

For a game that only counted scores on a board

When did it become easier to 

Walk away than stay

Obey than draw a line

Forsake the future for the past

Reminisce now for it will not last

Decisions must be made at haste

Before Earth resembles Mars

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. The clock is ticking explores the urgency of acting before irrevocable loss — confronting the human tendency towards avoidance, short-term thinking and passive obedience at a moment when the future of the earth itself hangs in the balance.

Comfort

Comfort these days is but a pretentious play

A utopian dream, a mythological state of being

For if my comfort bestowed your discomfort

Where was comfort gained?

A gain for a loss still equals nil

Until we see this spectre

Comfort will not be real

Just a matrix of illusion, perhaps even delusion

Balance must precede the comfortable shield

For balance is the equaliser of life

And comfort resides in truth not lies

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. Comfort reflects on the false promise of ease built on another’s suffering — suggesting that genuine comfort cannot exist without balance, honesty and a more equal reckoning with how we live alongside one another.

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

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. Rebellion explores the distance between imagined freedom and lived constraint — turning its gaze towards the structures that confine human possibility and asking when fairness, dignity and true collective liberation will finally be claimed.

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

Pain reduction

My dearest friend

I see your pain

Digging deep into that pit

Of despair you cannot escape

Words offer little comfort

To a heart that is raging

These are not just words

They are recognition

We are never far apart

When love is held

So hold on tight

Take your time

You may be battered

But you are not broken

And if you must bury yourself

Bury yourself in this friendship

That comes from me to you

Because I see you

Standing stronger than the storm

Leaving the past behind

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. Pain reduction reflects on friendship as a form of steadfast witness — suggesting that while pain cannot always be solved by language alone, love, recognition and patient solidarity can help carry a person back towards strength.

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

Why I had to be a political activist

After watching

Sitting passively

Not participating

I knew

I had been distracted

There is no shame

A conversation is enough to start

Re-directing the agenda

Giving the power back

To the people

We all live under the political domain

Either actively or passively

So I ask will you

Speak out now or later

Cry out ... why me?

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. Why I had to be a political activist considers political awakening as a moral turning point — suggesting that to live under power without response is itself a form of participation, and that even the smallest act of speech can begin to return agency to the people.

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

A contented heart

There is so much to sing about

If you don’t let sadness drag you down

Lift your head to the sky

Laugh at how small you sound

Reach out and make contact

Feel the impact on the ground

This day belongs to nobody

Walk free

Study instead

The rhythm of the earth

Directions from a night sky

Music that travelled through history

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. A contented heart explores joy as a practice of perspective — turning away from private heaviness and towards freedom, wonder and belonging within the larger rhythms of the earth and human history.

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 RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. Ghosts in the machine explores the dehumanisation of labour under systems that demand service while denying recognition — insisting on the irreducible humanity, dignity and inner life of workers too often treated as invisible instruments.

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

More please?

Why must it always be more?

More of me

More of you

A push for more

Why do you want more?

More of the same

More for less

More to digest

When did the simple

Slip away for more

Make way for more

A traffic congestion of more

More time for waiting

Less time for doing more

More often I crave less

Strip it down to less

Do with less

Make more with less

More is an overcrowded room

Where I do not belong anymore

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. More please? reflects on the exhausting logic of excess — questioning a culture of endless accumulation and suggesting that clarity, freedom and meaning may instead be found in the quiet discipline of less.

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

Paying my (artist) dues

It is hard to imagine

That the price is so high

Many will not even try to

Take their chance

Regrets of forsaken lovers

That never knew their time

Loss attempts to kill

Dreams did not arrive

Do I dare?

Pay the price

Bleed until dry

There is no other life

The pain provides

Another chapter is written

Discoveries are made

As flowers blossom

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. Paying my (artist) dues meditates on the cost of creative vocation — acknowledging the sacrifice, uncertainty and ache that accompany an artistic life, while insisting that from such endurance something vital, beautiful and deeply lived can still emerge.

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

Charity

A notion slaughtered

Severing connection

To the gift

No goodwill exists

In a wolf that dines

In sheep’s clothing

Recognisable in gesture

A purpose to be seen

Disingenuous disguise

Nobility is tied

To invisible strings

When iniquity funds

There is no charity at all 

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. Charity explores the corruption of giving when it is emptied of sincerity — exposing how power can disguise self-interest as virtue, and how generosity without integrity ceases to be generosity at all.

Love will always find the kind

I have visited misery

Floated on a sea of tears

Ached to slip into eternal slumber

Wished for just a chance

All fell in vain

For all it took

Was an act of kindness

A shift from the centre

Time for another

Given as a gift

No interest payable

The ledger personified love

Delivered in abundance

As the given is received

Trust in kind-heartedness

And love will find your door

-Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in RISE, Camille’s second contemporary poetry collection. Love will always find the kind reflects on the saving power of human generosity — suggesting that even in deep suffering, kindness can interrupt despair and restore faith in love as something reciprocal, quietly abundant and life-giving.

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