Asides

Today is Autistics Speaking Day.

AsideMemoirs Of A Dead Woman

Today is Autistics Speaking Day. Folks have plenty of things to say. I’ve submitted my post from October — “Isolation, Loneliness, and the Angry Aspie” for ASD. Go over to the FB page to read/submit your experiences: https://www.facebook.com/AutisticsSpeakingDay

UPDATE: I also did write a poem for ASDay. I’ve been writing poems about Helen R. Jones, a black woman born in the early 1940’s who is likely autistic (but undiagnosed). She struggles socially, is more interested in books than in fashion, and can never meet up to the expectations of her mother, who is a socialite wannabe (on a steel mill worker’s salary, no less) in the Black community of Steelville, Ohio, where Helen is born and lives out her life. Helen’s mother pressured her to suppress her flapping habit as a little girl. Helen/Aanteekwa is a fictional construct, but I think speaking about her today gives a voice to what many of us went through as teenagers…that is, feeling as an outsider. Here’s the poem, “a bright light jolted Aanteekwa awake“.

 

 

Does Caffeine Help You At All?

AsideMemoirs Of A Dead Woman

I started a discussion on the WWA FB page about caffeine. Do you find it helpful at all with any Asperger/autistic tendencies that you find problematic: sensory issues, socializing, handling the unexpected changes in life/routine, etc? Join me over on the FB page or post your comments here.

I Am Here, Where Are You? Blogging, Autism, and Phatic Communication

Asidewomanwithaspergers

Last month, Leah Kelley of 30 Days of Autism reposted my poem “Code” on her blog as well as our online exchange. It is a very rewarding experience when we can reach out to each other. This is probably one of my favorite things about blogging is the ability for echolocation — or as Susan Brackney, author of the “Lost Soul Companion” puts it, phatic communication, giving an example of how birds tweet to each other. We autistics who blog begin by saying “I am here, where are you?” and that was certainly one of the reasons for which I started Woman With Aspegers.

What else do we have to say? Listen to our language.

Thank you Leah for reposting the poem, which appears here.

Poetry for Autism Awareness, Acceptance, and Understanding

Asidewomanwithaspergers

Since I self-diagnosed myself in early 2010, I’ve been writing poems about autism and Asperger’s in order to understand them, as well as myself, and to make sense of what being autistic means. As part of both Autism Awareness/Acceptance/Understanding Month as well as during National Poetry Month, I’ve written some more poems about autism and Asperger’s.

You can read these poems over at Raven’s Wing Poetry, and I’ve gathered them all in one category to allow for easy finding.  Some of these are password protected, so you’ll need to hit me up either via comment moderation, Twitter, or the contact information on Raven’s Wing Poetry if you’d like the password to read them (I did this so that they are not considered “published” and thus I would still be able to submit them to journals or other markets).

Happy reading!

-Nicole