Back From Away is the second full collection from the force of nature that is Damien B. Donnelly.  He is the award-winning author of the poetry pamphlet Eat the Storms, a Stickleback publication and the conversational pamphlet In the Jitterfritz of Neon, co-written by Eilín de Paor, all published by Hedgehog Poetry Press. Many of you know him as the host and producer of the poetry podcast Eat the Storms, and editor-in-chief of The Storms, a printed journal of poetry, prose and visual art. His first full collection Enough! was published by Hedgehog Press in August 2022 Damien has received several awards, from the Arts Council and Fingal Arts and others. Back from Away is his second full collection.

Reading the poems in Damien’s exuberant collection felt akin to being immersed in a kaleidoscope of many sensations, places, people, culture, languages, as the poet delves into a multitude of experiences derived from his many travels – starting with his home town of Dublin, continuing on to Paris, Amsterdam, Shanhai, Korea- and also, a journey from the past, landscapes of North Co Dublin, evoked with great affection  to the present and looping back to reflect on memories, and on the nature of memory itself.

See p 29 Book of Memories first stanza

In less accomplished hand, such a rich and riotous journey could feel chaotic  for the reader, but is  not – rather, the reverse. I think this is because there is the spine of a structure that is familiar to so many of us – the adventure of leaving our home, be that country or hearth – wandering in foreign parts, meeting new people, leaving them – and returning, with all the enrichment, changes and even losses that such a journey brings. Although Damien’s experiences are specific and his own, they speak to us on a universal level, because of the added dimension of the physical travels being a journey into and towards the self.

See p 72 To Capture Each Other,Together

Some of these poems have a light touch and are peppered with casual references to places in Madrid and Paris and Amsterdam that place us in the mind of a flaneur, whose streets are the streets of the world; whereas others take us on a journey through memory, early life, questioning of origins, a wistfulness for connections and intimacies left behind.

Although I think you will fund some of these poems witty and amusing –  there is a poignancy underlying the voyage itself, where some experiences are fleeting yet leave an indelible mark and others, people the poet returns to. Reading such poems  is all the more affecting for the mingling of change and renewal accumulated while away, alongside the coming back – returning home to an enriched self.

Damien, let us accompany you.  

It’s almost 7 years to the day since Turas Press published its first book: on May 5^th, 2017, we stood in this room to celebrate my own collection. Since then, it has been a rollercoaster of activity, supported by so many people, including you, booksellers, publications, Irish Writers Centre and of course, 13 – now 15 writers who have put their trust in Turas Press in the publication of a total of now 26 titles. I am grateful to you all and honoured that you have put your confidence in this endeavour.

Emma McKervey is an award-winning poet from Holywood in County Down. In 2015 she was the winner of the Poetry NI/Translink Poetry Competition. Her work has been shortlisted and Highly Commended in many competitions, including the Seamus Heaney Prize, the Northern Ireland Poetry Competition and the Bord Gáis Iris Book Awards Poem of the Year. She is a professionally trained musician in cello and saxophone and has engaged in many musical ventures that include collaborations with composers, dancers and theatre. Emma is a member of Women Aloud. Her first collection The Rag Tree speaks, was published by Doire Press in 2021. Highland Boundary Fault is her second collection.

Given the title, you won’t be surprised to learn that the collection is set in Scotland. Although I am from Scotland myself, I had never heard the term Highland Boundary Fault. It refers to a tectonic plate between the Minch and the Atlantic, a literal terrestrial boundary between the lowland, and the highlands of Scotland, including the Hebrides – where Emma’s great grandmother hails from, and, coincidentally, my own grandmother as well. Highland Boundary Fault could be summed up – if it’s possible to sum up this rich, magical tapestry – tell of how these divided parts of the world are unified  – through a family story, a love story that takes us from the Hebrides to the Clyde estuary; and also, magically, through the evocation of landscape, history and myth. These poems are inhabited by flesh and blood people navigating the social mores of their time, and also by mythic characters recognisable from the stories not just of the Celtic world, but Norse, Greek, Indian and more.

The very first poem captures the flavour and the voice will be very familiar to Irish readers – its Cailleach, the hag – who opens this magical work with a declaration of ownership, a creation myth – powerful, and terrifying. P 11 lies 1 – 4

 From here on, the human story of the almost star-crossed lovers, Dan from the Isle of Lewis and his sweetheart Lizzy from Greenock, is interspersed with interruptions from – who? Their ancestors – Persephone,  Blodewedd, Odysseus and many more. Ours, too, maybe, For these are archetypes that tap into our deepest, mythic memory.

But these are flesh and blood creatures, too, and rooted in the social mores of their time. Telling, and reassuring, to see how the women of the island, in the face of patriarchal shift that forbids them from wearing bright colours, subvert the attempt to suppression in their colourful petticoats and undergarments. Vanity p 43 last stanza

There is such a wealth of erudition here, very lightly worn, that it is almost impossible to describe it, distill it. Luckily, I don’t have to, because the poet is here, the marvellous Emma McKervey, the architect of this magical construction, to share it with us.

Emma, transport us…