If you try to look into my eyes
you might succeed, if only for a moment
until I feel your gaze incise
and my skin wires buzz with too much current.
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Tag Archives: asperger syndrome
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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Stumble It!
Attention Autistic Writers/Poets! Call for Submissions (Journeys With Autism)
Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg, author of the Journeys With Autism blog, is welcoming submissions for an upcoming anthology of poetry and prose by people on the autism spectrum aged 35 and over. She says below:
I welcome all pieces of writing about your feelings about being autistic, your experiences, your sense of yourself, your view of the world, your work history, your relationship with your family, or any other area of interest to you. You can write about your life pre- or post-diagnosis, you can share your experiences as a child or as an adult, and you can take a personal and/or a political point of view. The possibilities are as varied as your feelings, perceptions, and life experiences.
I welcome submissions from those who are self-diagnosed as well as from those with an “official” diagnosis.
The deadline for submissions is March 31, 2011. Pieces must be emailed to rachel AT journeyswithautism DOT com. For further information and submission guidelines, please visit her call for submissions page.
-Nicole
Feature on Awe In Autism’s Website
Greetings, RWP Readers!
Due to illness, I have been offline for a while — and while I was away, I was featured on Awe In Autism’s website!
Awe In Autism seeks to “provide inspiration and encouragement to those impacted by autism…through original works of art, music, literature, poetry, photography and video, as well as many other resources”. They feature artists of all kinds on the spectrum. I was prompted to submit my work after winning the ANCA award. My poem, “You Don’t See It”, is featured on the site:
http://www.aweinautism.org/index.php/gallery/poetry/169-poet-nicole-nicholson
-Nicole
Stumble It!
WWP Poem #30: Paint by Numbers
i. zero
Nobody knows that this thing
isn’t a bandit: it doesn’t seize you suddenly
and leave you awash in open wire and stereo speakers
jammed into your ears. There is only the
curious brown baby, eyes like cameras,
with a wound-up roll of film for a brain.
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WWP Poem #27: Fifteen
You, perceptive enough to pick up
all the half-rhymes hanging out in your stomach;
you, with a galvanized ear leading to tubules
that course straight up into your brain;
you, possessing databanks built out of flesh
humming in data process heaven just behind your bone walls;
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WWP Poem #26: Back Door Blues
I.
I’ve been collecting music and pouring it into the coffers of my brain
since I was fifteen. It took a few years for me to understand
that the stereo inside my cranial walls needed more stuff to spin, so I
reached out in raven-claw fashion, stealing everything
I could get my ears on. Trailing behind me is the umbra
of a greedy teenage girl trapped in a good two-shoes, church girl headlock
while sneaking sonic pleasures through the back door of
her ears. Hey all you people that tryin’ to sleep,
I’m out to make it with my midnight dream.
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New Poem on Video: You Don’t See It
As I mentioned in this post, I received an Naturally Autistic Awards from the ANCA Foundation in the International Adult Literary category at their awards ceremony yesterday in Vancouver, BC. I was presented the award for an unpublished collection of poems, “Novena”.
I was unable to attend the ceremony, but recorded one of the poems in the collection, “You Don’t See It”, to be played at the awards. I am sharing it with you, embedded below into this post.
-Nicole
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WWP Poem #19: Dear Earthling
You’d think me rude, but I’d just stand and stare
while grocery store aisles used to jostle together,
every box and can a hungry puzzle piece
looking for its partner;
or the colors on every shirt, sweater, pant, and shoe
in every department store peeled themselves apart from their host
in paint by numbers precision and begged for my eye
to roll call. You’d think me strange,
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“The Poetry of Difference” Article on We Write Poems
Greetings!
One of my articles, “The Poetry of Difference”, was published on the brand new We Write Poems community site. In this article, I discuss what the poetry of difference is — it is poetry infused with the “stuff” from the cultures to which we belong.
Go read it here.
-Nicole
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Stumble It!
WWP Poem #1: Detonate
I am a box of nerves,
a bead curtain of tangled arteries: messengers,
blue and livid in the sunlight. They are
wire sapphires running silent underneath this skin
of clothes. Point to point heartbeats traveling up and down
my limpid tubes, my wonderlands in lapis lazuli.
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News Update: New Prompt Sites and a New Blog
Hello readers,
I wanted to make sure that you were aware of three new writing communities that have arisen in the wake of Read Write Poem closing down:
- We Write Poems, which is comprised of several former Read Write Poem community members — I’ll be a regular contributor for prompts and articles
- Writer’s Island, which has been reopened by former Read Write Poem community member Rob Kistner
- Big Tent Poetry, also comprised of some former Read Write Poem community members — here there will be weekly prompts as well as mini-challenges
Also, I should mention that I have opened a second blog, Woman With Asperger’s. I began this blog as a way to share my experiences with being a woman with Asperger Syndrome, to communicate with others like me, and to chronicle my journey in understanding it an other autism spectrum disorders. I will be posting very minimal poetry there, and in most cases will try to link back to Raven’s Wing Poetry. You don’t have to be an Aspie to visit — come on over and take a look around!
-Nicole
