Entity. Identity. I identify. Running gives no reason
until you run out of places to hide. Identity. I identify.
I recognise now what it means to be connected. A continent
can be chaos. An island doesn’t have to isolate. I. Island.
I can identify as an entity of this island. I didn’t hear them
telling me the truth. I didn’t know they knew me before I did.
I tore through tracks; teenager, twenties, thirties, I am tired
now, my trainers have taken to the tide. I am sand again,
ready to be cast upon beach, I want to be a grain in this garden
I was ground upon. I was barren of breath. I choked, drowned
in an ocean that wasn’t mine to begin with, we can bare too much
as well as being blind to all there is to see. I see now, this entity.
I was split once, by what I dreamed of and what I already had.
I see now, how this island, this entity, held my identity. Whole.
All words and photographs by Damien B Donnelly
Damien B. Donnelly 
Beautiful! And so the tide turns. This grain of truth in the grain of sand is far more robust than the ‘fragile feathers’. You’re ‘going to’, not ‘running from’, heading home in the ‘right’ lane. How happy I am for you!
Thank you so much Liz, it’s been an adventure so far these past 44 years, excited to see what comes next upon this shore of love and life 🤔🤭😘🤗
“ready to be cast upon beach”–and so you are. (K)
🧜🏻♂️🧜🏻♂️🧜🏻♂️
Love how this comes to a sense of finding one’s own identity and a sense of rightness and belonging. It has echoes for me too – as it will have for many.
I love this, Damien. It flows like the tides, and casts us with you there on the sand, there on your island–home. Wishing you all the best in the next phase.
Thank you Merril, for your kindness and encouragement xxx
❤