Poetry Wednesday - Writing Poetry with Autism
A brief muse and then a poem, not about a bear, but about small acts of defiance against the patriarchy.
Hello All,
I’m laid up in bed at the moment, my potential 4th COVID infection - tests are now harder to come by and we used the last ones up in December, new ones are on order - and I’ve been sleeping, watching Startrek Voyager and Breaking Bad, reading and thinking.
I’ve done a lot of responding to prompts recently,
weekly prompts, tiny winter and tiny springs poems. Then there has been National Poetry Writing Month, not that I have partaken in that, and there are more prompts upcoming. I’ve also attempted 2 competition entries or submissions. My first for a very long time, I do not hold out hope - that’s not me being defeatist more realistic because I’ve not done this for a long time and was never successful, I don’t really know how I’m meant to approach these submissions.What I have become aware of over the course of doing these prompts for 4 months, and attempting to write poetry for a couple of competition entries, is that I take prompts far too literally. Normally when I write, I write because the muse has struck, words have entered my brain and I need to release them. This is quite invigorating and I enjoy the process. Prompts are different.
It’s really good and fun to see what others have written in our weekly round up at Poetry Pals, and the difference in styles and angles people have taken the ‘assignment’. Many in ways I wouldn’t have thought about. Beautifully different ways.
Autists quite often take things very literally. I always prided myself on being someone who saw things differently. I tended to do the opposite of the crowd. It seems I am quite inflexible actually. If the prompt is something physical like ‘seaweed’ I can normally only seem to write about that. Neurokind recently had a prompt of ‘Weaving’ and I struggled so badly to make it relate to real life. I think I managed it, just.
I definitely don’t think we lack in creativity, it’s just different to the norm. I can write about ‘seaweed’ very creatively, but unless someone gives me the word, or I see it, I might not ‘creatively’ think of it as something to write about. There are processes to creatively, outline those processes for me and I’m fine, it’s just I need to know HOW first.
I suppose there isn’t really much point in this musing. My brain isn’t working properly anyway so I can’t take this in the direction it deserves.
But it’s now poetry Wednesday, so I have found a poem for you. I ummed and ahhed over what to give you, that weird one from long ago I keep taunting you all about, or a short one I put on Notes recently that got no traction or something different. I decided not to do the weird one as that takes explaining and I’ve no brain for that, and not the short one as it’s on Notes anyway, so which of the new ones?
And then because I also would also choose the bear1, 🐻, iykyk, I chose one about patriarchy. It’s not perfect, I’m not sure it’s finished, it’s sat in my ‘I need to think about this one for a while’ pile. It is one that is based on reality, it’s one that my autism finds easier to deal with because of that. Anyhoos, enjoy.
Small Acts of Defiance
A large red towel, sumptuous, soft,
expensive and for her use only
kept carefully folded in the kitchen
cupboard and everyone else
banned from touching it.
Loose leaf tea only she likes,
it’s smokey smell
drifting through the house,
brewed carefully and sipped
quietly from her best porcelain cup.
‘Top of the Pops’ watched on
a Thursday evening and
dancing to pop music whilst
sweeping the kitchen floor.
A personal bill paid and
unusually the rest left unpaid
to be handled by the other adult
in the house for once.
A mother-in-law visited,
chatted too, groceries bought,
listened too, cared for.
An old woman loved by small gestures.
Beautiful watercolour
paintings, rediscovering
a talent left suppressed.
Brush on paper again after 35 years
A woman standing up
in small, personal ways
against the patriarchal need
to define her worth. This is how
she insists on being herself. Till next time.
If you have enjoyed my ramblings I’d love for you to click the ❤️. It pleases the social algorithm, lets others know there’s something interesting here, as well as letting me know you liked it and giving me a little virtual hug. Without virtual hugs I have been know to get sad 😜. Shares are good too and a comment buoys me up even more 😁 A comment of what you liked, what you didn’t etc would be most gratefully appreciated.
There is meme/question going around which is really stirring up the ‘alpha’ males, especially in America.
“As a woman, would you rather be alone in the woods with a bear or a man.”
Many, many, many women said 🐻. Many, many men are cross about this, blaming the women rather than looking inward to wonder why?
Answers have been things like
‘Because we would be believed if we said a bear attacked us’
‘Because no one would ask us what we were wearing or what we said to encourage it.’
Etc etc etc