Guest Feature – Damien Posterino

I’m delighted to welcome, Melbourne born poet, Damien Posterino, to Patricia’s Pen. Damien is here to blog about his collection Show Me the way into Exile published by Alien Buddha Press. Without further ado, it’s over to Damien.

Show me the way into Exile

Damien Posterino

I would like to firstly express my gratitude to Patricia who recently invited me to be a guest poet on her blog. The blog reflects her passion for poetry and writing and it’s an honour to be a part of it.

My first collection of 40 poems Show Me the way into Exile was written over eighteen months from 2021/22, but on reflection it had been sitting inside me for years. The theme of exile has always been in my life and always captivated me.

I left Australia and moved to London from Melbourne twenty years ago. My mum often uses the analogy of going out to the desert when you need to find your way again. I am the son of an Italian immigrant who travelled out to Australia when he was four. I remember loving a 2004 French film called Exils about a young couple who travel from France to Algeria to reconnect with their heritage.

There is pathos and darkness about exile but there is also the narrative of reinvention, exploration and spinning the wheel for good and bad. I guess I’m all those things, and these poems reflect this in different ways.

To continue with my personal journey, the collection was written in Mexico where my partner is from. We had been working in Singapore and Thailand for 4 years between 2016-2020 and our work ended abruptly when Covid hit in 2020. We decided to move to Mexico for eighteen months where I would write full time. That new page allowed the seeds for the collection to germinate.

Across the collection I’ve tried to explore exile in very different and sometimes subtle ways. Everything from job loss, feeling like an outsider, isolation in a big city, changing communities around us and the individuals within it who get lost, addiction in various forms, darkness in love, distance in our relationships and the pain of nostalgia. There are others that I hope readers will also enjoy exploring.

Salman Rushdie in the Satanic Verses says:

“Exile is a dream of a glorious return. Exile is a vision of revolution: Elba, not St Helena. It is an endless paradox: looking forward by always looking back. The exile is a ball hurled high into the air.”

I would like to thank Alien Buddha Press who published the collection. I hope readers enjoy the poems and the journey I created.

About Damien Posterino

Damien Posterino is Melbourne-born but has made London his home. He has lived in 5 countries including Mexico where he recently spent 18 months creating his first poetry collection “Show Me the way into Exile”. His other published poems can be seen in over 30 international publications including A Thin Slice of Anxiety, The Bangor Literary Journal, Paddler Press, Madrigal Press, Roi Fainéant Press and The Jupiter Review. You can find him walking around Victoria Park in East London or on Twitter @damienposterino.

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