"The frosty glow of your computer, steals you away with other suitors."
It’s Sunday morning, and odds are you’re still in bed. You may be lucky enough to be spending it with the one you love…but if like us, you spend your nights hugging your pillow (no, not biting, hugging), then this one’s for you. Damien Arness Dalton is a super talented poet, but it was this one, Love Wince, that really caught our attention. Find out more about Damien after his fine piece of work.
Touch me when the moon turns over
I’ll choke my pillow with my desire instead
My fingertips burns and scolders
Cold porcelain cups warm the morn
A silence waiting to be said
Strangers sharing the divided bed
The frosty glow of your computer
Steals you away with other suitors
I’m next to you yet miles away
Lost out to sea in my own emotion
I will return from foreign lands
And oceans
But will you recognise me?
Set your walls down and be?
Mine
Guarded ‘You don’t want me you say’
Yet I fail to receive your affections and you ignore mine
Falling on numbness that denies
My love for you
A desolate landscape
Nothing grows here anymore
Fingerprints left on your door.
Where can we see more of your stuff?
My poems live in my head and in scrap books. I usually jot down ideas on my notes in my phone but host them now on this site.
What do you do?
I work at The Science Museum and Houses of Parliament Education Service delivering educational events, workshops and public engagement about Science, History and Politics. I studied at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and my background is Drama Applied Theatre and Education. I love using the arts to inspire, engage and inform about the world we live in and to tell stories. That’s what pulls me towards poetry, it’s an expression of language in all its beauty.
How long have you been writing poetry?
I started writing poems when I was 17 and in the closet. I recently found a book I wrote full of angsty stuff about my sexuality and other secrets and they were my first attempts at poetry. I’ve only recently started moving the poems I’ve had floating around in my head onto paper and into a website. I’ve never placed any value on them until you begin to share them with others and they become transformative and cathartic. I consider myself a beginner and have signed up to do a course to look at structure and form. I’m a believer in learning by doing and I’ve grown to create poems in a particular style. Being dyslexic hasn’t been a hurdle for me at all.
What themes do you write about?
I write about my gay experiences, the gay scene, my family and past relationships. As I’ve grown up in London all my life and have always been engaged and active on its gay scene, I feel I want to capture that ‘gay experience’ in my poetry. Some may seem jaded and dark, it can be a fabulous place yet there are dark lonely corners in our community and scene. I’m inspired by Thom Gunn and Gregory Woods who have some homoerotic and queer poems that are written to perfection.
Do you go to readings?
I go to the Royal Festival Hall as they have a fantastic poetry library there and they ran a great reading session during LGBT History Month. I want to read my poems aloud and have yet to perform them to an audience.
What would you like to happen with your poetry?
To be published is one of my life dreams. I hope to grow and one day create a body of work to physically have in my hand. I want my poems to be enjoyed and I am working on creating more open and accessible poems where they can be relatable to not just a gay audience but to have a queer lens on the world.
What’s your favourite mariah song and why?
Heartbreaker because I went to the Rainbow Tour and it was such an incredible concert. I was standing right up the front. I love the RnB jams. Reminds me of my ghetto days in Heaven.
