Memories of a Seaside Afternoon by Riley Donahue
Memories of a Seaside Afternoon a collection of photography and poetry
copyright 2016, by Riley Donahue all rights reserved -- no part of this book shall be reproduced in any form without permission from the author
thanks to my friends who appear in the book
Ode to the Beach The ebb and flow of your endless rhythm calms me down when I need to rest You tutor me in the ways of universal time so that I’m ready when comes a test And of course your wife, the radiant sun she warms my bones when I am cold For my name she does not ask she loves her guests both young and old Your soft mist, it kisses my cheek and tells me everything’s all right “I can be blue, but how can you when the sun is so bright?” That timeless crashing of waves will continue long past when it’s my turn to die My stay with you was a beautiful moment as short as a seagull’s cry
Blink Moment captured, fraction of a blink A sound that tells that time is stopped Tedious pressure becomes complete A fraction is mine, a marker dropped Color captured on a strip that receives Someone saved from eternal oblivion It stays stagnant while your hairline receeds One blink among many, one in a million The notion of transcience motivates a soul To cling to seconds to make an hour Using tools to make tools to make a mold Nothing gives something a physical power A book full of moments illustrates a life With a spectrum of emotions that fills its rainbow And while living for you might be full of strife The beauty of photos will make it less painful
The Mood A brand new day, a virgin page The coin will land and set a course You will decide the words you say But where they go you cannot force The sun, it shines, your heart, it beats But fast your mood changes to sour When thoughts go to the space in sheets The mood comes at such early hour Poor spirit falls to such a depth With no one to extend a hand The only rope for him is breath The only hope for him is sand Energy he has to borrow For a chance of good tomorrow
Millennial Fantasy The new generation sees their dreams in the soft glow of plasma screens falsely believing their world is what they see High is the demand for fantasy providers for their vicarious magic holds in a spell the insincerely motivated from blocking the deciders And it’s a shame, although probably not new, compromised ethics’ an acceptable method for the hopes of me and you So follow Okonma and listen to Watts if you escape from the trap, don’t twice be caught run with your eyes open, never closed at the top
Fresh Dreams Yes, I know it’s been a while since I’ve had fresh dreams and even though there’s been a gap I still know what it means Attentive eyes will glaze and slow, focused on something not there thinking tenderly of someone for whom yesterday I did not care The mind, it works in funny ways it fixates on fears by the dozen but it can’t help itself from the smell of fresh dreams which it eats like warm bread from the oven Each dream is oh so different like earth, wind, water, fire all the while, they’re fiercely similar so one another, they must admire And I, I’ll have to choose it seems; I always choose the freshest dreams So the only end will be when a dream will dream of me
What A Shame What a shame it is to see a rain cloud on a sunny day What a shame it is to smell something that a skunk has sprayed What a shame it is to hear someone who is crying What a shame it is to know that a friend is lying What a shame it is to have a lover with false intentions What a shame it is to follow a leader without directions What a shame it is to want a life more like Icarus What a shame it is to live without the bliss of ignorance
Ode to Music A voice or sound can speak to you from sometime in the last century and pluck you from your time and space to put you in a memory From the sweet nothings of a sine wave to the raw force of a beating drum these sounds can echo your finest moments or make you come undone To tell the tale of a forgotten day through the croonings of a voice now gone these stories of moments will be remembered again like the rising and setting of the sun Though I know these melodies will bring back pain and I should probably just stay put music fuels my masochistic desire so I shoot myself in the foot The emotional engine will propel you into some sort of fourth dimension and what is a life without joy and pain? Which explains man’s greatest creation
Alone Together Everyone was born alone, and will die alone this is a fact of life But humans, being silly creatures figured out a way to alleviate their strife Everyone is aboard a train that will make a great many stops And how different they will be for some will be breathtaking while others are heartbreaking but sure enough, all of them you will see What most passengers will find is they need a way to pass the time inbetween falling to their darkest depths and climbing to their highest peaks While this doesn’t change the reality that we are born to be alone, at least we can be alone together
Sunday Drowning in blankets and blue satin sheets Feeling a breeze that is so soft and rare Without a care Falling asleep in the warmth of the sun Then you awake and find it’s still there Stroking your hair Saturday’s gone and Monday still waits Lost in dreams in an imagined cafe Begging to stay With the sun low it is time to rise Consciousness came to my door with a tap Bye, Sunday nap
View Are these thoughts another smear? A jet-black strike through a sunny, white cloud Although I preach, I’m a hypocrite because I am the crowd It’s hard to find any joy in this but I know it’s in my genes to only see what is implied to hear what can’t be seen These titans that watch over me from sleepy days to now can only see conflicting views and both are not allowed Is it luck or is it curse? to see such blackened view One can only hope one day my vision will cloud anew
Portrait by Taylor Herron
Models:
Mia Kerr Ashley Elliott Claire Bold Casey Schmidt Drew Thomsen Camilla Werner-Longo Mark Fuoco Pero Simic Sofia Santos Meghan Duncan Kate Opre Marlon Fuller Reddea McMillan Ashley Yu Diego Diaz-Lundquist Kiara Barrett Shaye Fear Sophie Seng