Category Archives: Personal Insight

This is for when I talk about my experiences with poetry.

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Putting the Awe in Autism: My Poem on TV and Other Thoughts

First, an announcement: an excerpt of the video of my poem, “You Don’t See It”, was featured in a Long Island TV FIOS segment about Awe In Autism.

The segment has been posted on MyLITV’s website in two videos. Part 1 features Awe In Autism, its founders (Deborah French and Kim Covell), and some of the work featured on the site, include the excerpt of my poem. Part 2 features “for dylan”, a song and music video which the founders call “the song behind the Awe in Autism” project.

In and amongst this bit of news and self-promotion, I feel the need to express a couple of things. First of all, if I haven’t said it before, my thanks and gratitude go to Awe in Autism for giving the opportunity for my poetry, namely “You Don’t See It”, to be featured on their site. AWE has given many autistic artists, musicians, poets, and others an opportunity to have their work seen, heard, and accessed. Also, as Kim Covell states in the first video, artists with autism often have a harder time self-promoting, and while I’ve gotten used to it thanks to the Internet, I must say I still find the task daunting sometimes. I am grateful for the opportunity for my work to reach a wider audience and go beyond this blog thanks to AWE.

Secondly, as I have said before, “You Don’t See It” is probably my best statement and expression to the world of what having Aspergers/being autistic is like. The experience of self-discovery and acceptance has been joyful and at times painful and overwhelming — but probably the most significant thing I could say is that is has been enlightening. And through it all, the craft of writing and poetry have been a conduit and a means for this journey.

Writing is my native language. I am much, much better at the written word than I am at oral communication: there are times that my tongue fails, but praise God my pen does not. This is part of my reality as an autistic person, and is true for many others. The poetry helps me say what sometimes my lips cannot. I hope I have given you, the readers of RWP, at least a glimpse or a peek at what that reality — and my reality as a whole — is. I also hope that through the poetry on this page that I have reached you, moved you, made you think, and most of all, made you feel.

Finally, please consider not only watching the videos of the segment but visiting Awe in Autism to see the vast, wonderful spectrum of art by creative and talented autistic individuals. I can promise you that you will not be disappointed, but amazed at the breadth of expression the site has to offer.

Saludos,

Nicole
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Read Write Poem Closing Down

I was shocked and saddened to read this morning that Read Write Poem will be closing down at the end of April. See the announcement at: http://readwritepoem.org/blog/2010/03/31/read-write-poem-announcement-2/. There was a part of me that, for a minute, hoped that this is an early April Fool’s joke. But I don’t think that it is.

I, for one, have to thank RWP. As of this May, I will have been part of the RWP community for two years. I have enjoyed the information and resources that RWP presented, as well as the weekly prompts, which challenged me to write more and write better. I have constantly mentioned this community when I read live at open mics, because I really do feel it has been a wonderful thing that has happened in mine and others’ poetry lives. And I am sad to see it go.

I know that there is a large contingent of readers of Raven’s Wing Poetry who come from RWP. I think that we’ve been reading each other’s work, commenting on it, offering constructive criticism when needed, and enjoying the virtual community in that exchange and reading. While I don’t know about our capability to continue the vast, expansive mission of Read Write Poem, I hope that in some capacity, we can continue the community aspect that RWP offered with each other. I don’t know if that would happen in the form of another place that offers weekly writing prompts that try to challenge us at least somewhat close to how the RWP prompts did, or if it would be more, or if it would simply be community to come together, share, and maybe collaborate.

Please, I want your thoughts and reactions. I’ve been on a wonderful adventure with poetry in the blogosphere for the last two years, and I want this to continue. I’m sure you do too. Please leave your thoughts either through comments on this post or backchannel through my “About The Poet” page.

Saludos,

Nicole Nicholson
Founder, Raven’s Wing Poetry

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Can Poetry Matter?

I wrote this, and then realized that although it is not a poem, it does fit with Rockin’ Chair Prompts’ standing prompt, “What’s really on your mind?”.

-Nicole
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I care about the future of poetry, as I’m sure that many of you who read this blog also do.
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2008 Rust Belt Poetry Slam: Awesome!

Greetings readers!

My fiance and I attended the finals for this year’s Rust Belt Poetry Slam last night. We decided to go to last night’s finals bout because a) there was an open mic right before the slam (I read “Be” at the open mic), and b) we wanted to see what the finals would be like, never having attended a poetry slam of this notoriety and magnitude. Continue reading →

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An Experiment

I am going to try something new for the next few weeks. I’ve been wondering what I can do to grow as a poet, and to me, the obvious thing to do first would be to try out poetic forms and styles other than what I normally write in. The Chaucerian Roundel fascinates me, and I’ve seen good examples of it used by other folks, including Half Way Tree. So this week, I will attempt to write only Chaucerian roundels, and the best poems of this week’s experiment will be posted on this blog. I also hope to generate some material to read at open mic this week. We’ll see what happens.

-Nicole

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An Open Mic Virgin No More!

In my introduction when I first started this blog, I said I would share the occasional personal experience or insight. In this vein, I will talk about my first open mic experience.

This past Wednesday, my fiance and I attended our first poetry open mic night. I’d had an idea to find open mic poetry events around Central Ohio, observe what goes on, and then when I felt a little less chicken, I would get up there and read myself. This one, courtesy of Writer’s Block Poetry, is held every Wednesday night at 8:00 PM at Kafe Kerouac in the Ohio State North Campus area in Columbus. Continue reading →