Featured Poet: Donny Winter
Good morning, today’s Friday Feature is Donny Winter! Donny is a fellow Alien Buddha Press alumni with multiple books released. I first found out about him when Alien posted something about his book Feats of Alchemy, I was intrigued enough to find an LGBTQ+ poet and reached out to him personally for a signed copy, and we became fast friends.
Donny’s work is an inspiration, I personally found it intensely relatable and, were it not for his work, particularly Feats of Alchemy, I might not have had the courage enough to move forward with plans to share my own work.
His work is real, open, raw, and honest. And, I’m thrilled to say that as well as sharing poetry from his book, here, he is also sharing new poems for the October Stories project, which you can view over in the October Stories section, or read it in print November 10th.
Below are two wonderful poems from Feats of Alchemy, you can find links on where to buy it and his other two books at the bottom of the post.
Desperate Preservation (from Feats of Alchemy)
by Donny Winter
A child tapes
fallen leaves back to trees
because he can’t bear to watch them die
[dreams he kept them alive]
A woman flips
through smudged scrapbook pages
because she kept her former lovers’ roses
[preserved in non-stick coffins]
A man stuffs
the dog he had for fifteen years,
tortured by his calculated euthanasia
[all to keep his eyes open]
A teenager pins
the butterflies across her car’s grill
in boxes to keep them beautiful
[imagines they still fly]
The embalmer re-paints
smiles on cold faces, prepares
the deceased for one last performance
[still presentable even in death]
Tightrope (from Feats of Alchemy)
by Donny Winter
I’ve lived here far too long,
sliding these bare feet carefully
across the line [in a void that spins invisibly]
My arms are numb, no longer heavy
in this balance, sometimes I pretend
they’re bird wings [I forget I’m still alive]
I no longer dwell on how deep
the chasm is beneath, nor do I
wonder when this tightrope ends [somewhere ahead]
I’ve held my breath too long
because a monster stirs below
waiting for me to fall [it’d be easy to let go but]
no, I feel the warmth
of a distant flicker; press on ahead
to keep this monster unfed [I have to keep this pace]
Originally published in Lothlorien Poetry Magazine, Vol. 2, 2021
Bio
Donny Winter is an LGBTQ+ poet, educator, and activist currently residing in Midland, Michigan. He teaches creative writing at Delta College and composition at Saginaw Valley State University. He’s authored three poem collections: Casting Seeds (2022), Feats of Alchemy (2021), and Carbon Footprint (2020). His poems have appeared in numerous magazines and journals, including Somber Midwest, Awakened Voices, CultureCult Magazine, and Millennium Pulp. For more information, visit www.donnywinter.com.
You can find a copy of Carbon Footprint, here https://a.co/d/9aGvskA
You can find a copy of Feats of Alchemy, here https://a.co/d/iXAzSkA
You can find a copy of Casting Seeds, here https://a.co/d/74SQH01
Thank you Donny, for being today’s feature!
