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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Stumble It!

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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Stumble It!

-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.

Poetry has existed since humankind could form together words and sentences. Poetry has told our stories, whether of national heroes vanquishing villains or individuals staring down their demons in the mirror. Poetry has shouted declarations of love from the rooftops or carried low growls of hatred in its belly. Poetry has been the voice of both the loud and the quiet…and has given voices to those who stood in danger of having their own voices snatched from them.

In my own life, poetry reached me at a young age and spoke to me directly in language that captured my heart. I have been writing poetry since age twelve and I have always loved the art form; I never stopped. I disconnected with my muse for several chunks of time that equate to almost ten years of silence. Last year, I started sporadically writing again; this year I am writing frequently.

With all of that having been said, I have been thinking about the current state and future of the art form. A couple of days ago, I posted a link to the Poetry and Pop Culture article that I found interesting. The author gives some suggestions for why poetry is becoming less of a cultural influence and what to do about it. I also found this article, reprinted from the May 1991 issue of the Atlantic Monthly. This I believe gives a way more in depth discussion of what has happened to poetry in the United States. While this article was published seventeen years ago, I don’t believe much has changed since then, except for the influence of slam and performance poetry.

So, what has happened to poetry? It has certainly become a less prominent art form in American Culture. Poetry, unfortunately, has become something to be endured grudgingly in high school English class or something expressed in a sort of poetry counterculture, never reaching beyond its own boundaries. This troubles me and others who love the art form and continue to create in it. We ask ourselves why this is happening. I myself am still unclear as to why. Many reasons are given for the downfall of poetry, including:

• the migration of poetry to the academic arena (as mentioned by Dan Gioia in the above article, Scott Woods in his last “Poetry is Doomed” column, and Thomas Dirsch in his book “The Castle of Indolence”)
• poetry becoming more of a private art form, with more lyrical and less narrative verse (see G.M. Palmer’s words on this on his blog, Strong Verse)
• the demise of the arts in general

So….I want to hear what others think about this. In your estimation, why IS poetry becoming less relevant in our culture? And can poetry really matter again? I think Gioia gives some great suggestions in his article (suggestions which I still feel have relevance in 2008), including spending more time improving the quality of the performance of poetry, seeking out radio as a medium, marrying poetry with other arts form, and so forth. Paradowski gives some good suggestions as well, including starting an open mic if your city does not have one, bringing poetry journals to your local high school, starting general interest poetry journals, and so forth. In addition, I recommend checking out the other installments of Scott Woods’ column, Poetry is Doomed.

Please, feel free to leave a comment! I want to hear people’s thoughts on the state and survival of poetry.

-Nicole

Stumble It!

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.

We came in early – about 6:10 – because we wanted to make sure we got a good seat and that I could get on the open mic list. We purchased tickets ahead of time for the finals (go us!) so we just sat down, hung out, and watched everything kinda come together. The open mic started at 7:00. I along with several others read before the indie slam portion of finals, which started around 8 PM.

The whole thing was awesome, both the indie competition and the team finals. I heard people with some skill of words and some serious energy in that room. Images stick out in my mind of personal pain, obstacles, rejection, anger, community. I hope that someday I will be half the performance poet that these men and women are.

To be honest, the details of last night are still a swirling mess in my mind, so I’m having difficulty sorting things out. Some things I liked:

• Alvin Lau, who performed “Full Moon” and “For The Breakdancers”;
• Another poet answered the teacher who once told her that she couldn’t write;
• There was an unbelievable team piece done by the Cleveland slammers;
• A poet named WonderDave, who slammed about what we are to believe is “Sexy” from the media mogul minds of advertising;
• “The Gospel of the Matrix”, performed by Scott Woods of Writer’s Block Poetry;
• ALL of the poems performed by Dave of Columbus Black Pearl;
• Spike’s piece about riots, team rivalries, and Woody Hayes (“this is Jesus, and this is Woody Hayes”);
• Purity’s poem about a young, homeless, pregnant woman looking for answers (“Who Is God?”)
• A poem from Donielle of Writer’s Block about pimpin’ Girl Scout cookies (absolutely hilarious); and
• A poem in the form of an open letter to Muslim convenience store owners.

There of course were a LOT more poems performed last night, and I apologise if I’ve garbled anything. I have to admit that I left the room vibrating inside from all the energy flying around during the slam. This was the best damn thing I’ve ever seen. In fact, I did not hear one bad poem the entire night. That vibrating energy inside me inspired me to write five more poems last night and this morning – two of them are going up on the blog after this post.

And…my fiance and I together were asked to be one of the judges for the team finals. I’ve never judged a slam before. Awesome! We had so much fun. And we found out how interesting a judge’s job is – YOU will get booed quicker than the poet if the crowd doesn’t think your score is high enough for a poet’s performance. But I must emphasize the fun aspect of the slam – the poems are what matter, not the points.

Believe me folks…we WILL be back for more. We are poetry slam addicts. And I got enough inspiration for at least another week of writing. So…I will not do an experiment this week – I will just write in my normal style and see what happens. But I promise, more poetic form experiments will be forthcoming.

Thanks for reading,

Nicole

For those of you who don’t know what this form is, I’ll explain briefly: a Chaucerian roundel is another kind of roundel; Chaucerian roundels have ten lines consisting of two tercets and one final four line stanza. The rhyme scheme looks like this:

A
b
b

a
b
A

a
b
b
A

The capital A signifies the “refrain” – this line gets repeated in its entirety in lines 1, 6, and 10.

Overall, I think this was a worthwhile experiment, and I did learn how to use this poetic form – always a good thing. I like the way this form creates a natural, repetitive refrain, which can be a powerful way to communicate the central idea of a poem. I also like the rhyming scheme of this form, and it forces me to think of creative ways to compose to keep this rhyming scheme.

The downside was that after ten Chaucerian roundels in a row, I got tired of writing only in that style. So I reverted back to my normal style (free verse with some rhyme) after I wrote poem number ten. I think this could have happened with any form I experimented with and tried to learn, however. But to paraphrase another poet I know, it’s another tool in the toolbox. I can use the Chaucerian roundel form, now that I know how, if I feel that a poem calls for it. This was a learning experience for me, and I’m glad I undertook it.

I haven’t decided what I’ll do next quite yet. I might go back to my normal style for a while. I might try another experiment next week. I don’t know. I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, enjoy reading the ones I’ve posted here.

Thanks to the poems written by Half Way Tree for inspiring me to do this.

-Nicole

-Nicole

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.

So we went last Wednesday and before the open mic began talked to some very cool people, one of which after reading “Father Pat” out of my notebook, encouraged me to get up and read that night. I said, “What the Heck” and signed up to read. I decided to read “Lizard King” (which isn’t on the blog but may be published in print later this year).

I was probably the fifth person to go up. Before I walked up on stage, our new-found friend who had mentioned I should read in the first place hollers at the top of her lungs: “She’s a VIRGIN!”

The crowd roared, and the MC led them into doing something that they do for every person who reads for the first time – “Coming to the stage right now for the first time at Writer’s Block Poetry, let’s give it up for Nicole!”

After the rambunctious applause, I go up. My first reaction: “OH MY LORD.” After that I *couldn’t* disappoint. So I read “Lizard King” in my best voice and shaking like crazy. But I did it. I finally did it.

After I sat back down, we stayed as long as we could and also watched the first round of the Poetry Slam Finals. I can tell you, we did not hear *one* bad poem that night. Both the open-mic’ers and the slammers who came up later had all written – and performed – some of the best stuff I have ever heard.

The slam is fun. There’s a lot of energy in the room. The slammers perform like nobody I’d ever seen. And we are hooked. I will be going back to KK to read some more and cut my performing teeth.

Stay tuned for more.

-Nicole