Monthly spotlights are back! Whooooop! So let us start with an absolute cracker.
Sean's poetry work first came to my attention from a publication in Bloom Magazine, and I have been following their work ever since. We are very excited to feature their work this month so make sure to scroll down and see what it is all about!
About Sean
Sean Paul Connolly is a writer of poetry, prose and drama, soon to graduate from Goldsmiths, University of London. They identify as gender non-conforming and their work is often pre-occupied with gender identity, body image and mental health. Their biggest writing inspirations are currently Angela Carter, Sylvia Plath and Ocean Vuong.
@seanpaulconnollyuk
About the piece
I’m currently writing my dissertation about identity in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. In Through The Looking Glass, the Red queen’s parting advice to Alice is ‘remember who you are.’ I’ve always found this expression rather meaningless, considering the ephemeral nature of identity. The way that we define ‘who we are’ is often due to external factors, so what happens when these parameters are taken away? (as they are in the Alice books.) The call to recall ‘who we are’ is also comfortless, when early memories of our identity are due to social conditioning. But the more that I think about the phrase ‘remember who you are’ on my journey of self-discovery, the more I realise that you actually have the power to create the parameters of ‘who you are’. ‘Remember who you are’ takes on a more empowering meaning each time I hear it.
Remember Who You Are
By Sean Paul Connolly
Remember who you are
Is comfortless as frostbitten fingers,
When who you are is as inconstant as the ocean,
As far off as the stars. Floating helplessly with the changing tides,
Clinging to the surfaces
Of beauty,
Youth,
Praise,
And abuse.
That are torn away til they are no longer ours.
Remember who you are. The tick of the clock.
The rhythm
That I murder.
A reminder
Of immortality,
A constant of the present
Drawing us from dreams
Like midwives from
The wombs of our Mothers.
Remember who you are.
Well,
Time is a man-made invention,
As frivolous as candyfloss
Manifesting in mental cavities,
Rotten little apple.
Remember who you are’ Itself is inconstant.
Who are you?
Who the fuck am I?
A projection of you? A speck of dust in the night
That you blew?
Remember who you are.