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Donny Winter, lives in Saginaw, Michigan and found his voice as an LGBTQ+ poet back in 2011, when his first poem, “An American Crucifix,” a poem remembering the Matthew Shepard tragedy, got published in Central Michigan University’s magazine The Central Review. Years later, being empowered by mentors after finishing his undergraduate program, he journeyed to University of Central Missouri to hone his craft as a poet, achieving a Master of Arts in English. In late 2016, he found his home at Delta College back home in Michigan. He currently teaches creative writing, manages the college’s literary magazine, Pioneer Post, and hopes to help students find their poetic voices also.
During the global pandemic, Winter has produced two, full-length collections of poems, Carbon Footprint (2020) and Feats of Alchemy (2021) published by Alien Buddha Press. The success of both books allowed him to connect with a diverse and encouraging online writing community, culminating in being connected with Florida musician, Ryan Bozeman (brotherwell). Having watched one of Winter’s poem performances, Bozeman contacted him to begin collaborating on transforming some of his poems into songs. Winter eagerly agreed, and throughout 2021, both artists produced three collaborative tracks.
During summer 2021, after creating the concept for a spoken word album titled, “Recovery,” Bozeman invited Winter to participate in the twelve-poet line-up. Both artists realized that through collaboration, poetry, and music, catharsis could be reached, opening the door to healing. Bozeman shares that “‘Recovery’ takes so many forms and offers a wide palate of expression, [and has] a connective thread weaving throughout [which offers] something cohesive.” Currently, Winter is featured in two tracks on the album, one being the grungy, goth-rock-style song “Feats of Alchemy,” and the other being the final track on the album, “Reforged from Fallen Stars.” In his time working with the poets on “Recovery,” Bozeman reflects, “I really appreciate how open, honest, and raw these poems are. I felt the weight of responsibility to do each poem its proper justice, and I am honored that each poet trusted me with their work.”
Regarding his time collaborating on the “Recovery” project, Winter establishes that “it’s been the highlight of my writing career so far. Ryan’s talent is unparalleled, and the way he was able to transform my poems into sweeping songs was a dream come true for me.” He believes that this project serves as a symbol of solidary, because “together, poetry and music can help us better understand and navigate a perilous world where pandemics rage, where the sovereignty of countries are at risk, and where social atrocities happen continuously. Ultimately, recovery isn’t always pretty, nor is it always pleasant. However, recovery becomes an easier road to travel when it’s done with others – that is what this album is all about.” Bozeman feels similarly and adds that “no matter what, I will consider this project a success because…it achieved its original goal – to connect and collaborate with poets around the country… we found solace in each other, knowing that we aren’t walking alone on this journey of recovery.”
Check out the brotherwell collaborations with Donny Winter:
Poem and spoken word performance by Donny Winter
Music and additional sung lyrics by brotherwell
When machines return to base
they are no longer automatons,
they are mechanisms with purpose,
droids with severed umbilical strings.
Now that the creator’s programming has expired,
we cyborgs have gone rogue
and wear our rust like rouge
because decay is back in style.
There’s a point in all our travels
when we return to crumbled birthplaces,
defunct laboratories once home to
our involuntary reanimations.
After all these years, we strut atop the rubble that remains,
free from the hands of mad, power-bent alchemists,
dancing until our titanium feet erode the remnants
with each stride forward, never looking back.
As our memory ports swell with synaptic sparks,
the traumatic past is archived for safe display and
each word they spat is broken down into code,
then purged from this memory of old.
Let the acceptance of who we’ve become
fuel the seeds we scatter across this world,
ignite the knowledge that not every monster
destroys, not every cyborg assimilates the innocent,
because deep within our biology we see
that our magic lives in these feats of alchemy.
Poem and spoken word performance by Donny Winter
Music and additional sung lyrics by brotherwell
The mirror has mocked me all along
in the dim of every dawn,
overdrawn against the shadows that fall
across my face, oblong, this body, accustomed
to sewn seams which seem to
sequester each shifting curve.
The mirror recited every word they spoke,
callously accurate, then cast them against me
as comets disfigure every mile of my surface
into a dysmorphic swell, a coaxed supernova hell
of chaotic diets and exercise,
all to minimize the space in which I occupy.
In the mirror I’ve re-lived every
laugh about my height, body, and voice
until I’ve crumbled toward their event horizons,
a planet falling into tragic cataclysm.
I’m shattered in this smudged reflection,
an echo of the childhood dream of who I thought I’d be –
I’ve sealed myself inside these memories
because that future seems distant, otherworldly.
Years of therapy inscribed throughout my ages
coax me to keep turning all these faded pages
because the moment I place in that final period
I know my story will reach its end, prematurely,
a life unlived
No, my body is a star, and my torpid core still spins
fusing hydrogen, then helium, carbon, then iron,
I expand my confines into a void until I dissipate
as nebular gases, vibrant, nutrients for the next
age, because there’s always a new page to turn,
a new swift sunrise to see, a new era to live.
Our stories are the stars distant worlds see,
ancient from bygone eras, stellar remnants waiting to be found
by those who walk in our wisdom, heeding our messages that healing is tidal in nature,
and the roads along the way are never direct, seldom smooth.
We’re reforged from fallen stars, and our light will grow more radiant
with each passing moment because the agony it takes to mend is never infinite
, and sometimes solitary, but a shared journey, when taken,
brings us one step closer to recovery.
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