Engagement with Poetry?

Post Reply New Topic

I'm reading a paper that reviews autism theories right now, and one of the things it seems to be suggesting is that autistics might not read stuff like poetry in the same way as most people do because we struggle to read between the lines and sustain mental connections from one line to the next. This actually resonates with me, so my question is this: to what extent do you read and feel able to engage with poetry?

I love poetry. There are some great poets here on Wrong Planet. Some of them write about what it's like living with Asperger's in a way that makes instant sense to me.

But, yeah, poetry can also be a nightmare. There is a lot of poetry I just don't get. I don't know if it's because of the metaphors or something else, but with some poetry I might as well be trying to read Greek.

This has long been an issue of mine. For many years I honestly believed I was not only somewhat color blind bu seriously poetry blind because [though I ran into occasional pieces that resonated] almost 100% of what was presented as poetry to me in English ckass And poetry books did less than nothing for me. Why write it? Why read it? WHAT is it wanting to say?

Other people got it, liked it, not me.

One year though, I had a student, PhD candidate in history, nice guy, bright, hopeless at languages [my subject], a bit dyslexic, visually challenged, somewhere on the spectrum [though I did not understand that at the time] and a respected published poet. Out of intererst / courtesy - you owe your students something - I read his stuff. It made sense.

I wondered if he was actually just a lousy poet - but they were publishing.

Eventually I realized, there is more than one poetry. Each mind shape has and appreciates its own poetry, and there ISD poettry I can get, appreciate, value - even poetry I can do.

But the English teaching profession and the Poetry Consortium are run by a particular breed of NTs, very numerous and influential and VERY didfferent from me in mind set.

Look around - hunt in the corners and you will likely find a poetry that works.

My wife - also but diffderentl spectral - very much values a style of poetry that overlaps with mine but is not identical. Being a bit more emotive she follows the textbook poetry better even swhen it is not hers.

There was a time when I was a poet. Only published once or twice, but still, it defined me for a while. In my dreams, I'm still somewhere between the zen monk and that poet.

The sound of the words, the rhythms, the meanings all interlaced like the ingredients in a fine fruit cake? I don't know. I don't think there's anything in the aspie sensorium that rules out poetry though. Different poetry, perhaps.

Cannot read it for the most part. Requires WAAAAY too much abstraction for me. Gives me a headache for the work I have to put into it.

I love poetry, reading it, anyway. I couldn't write any, it would just be literal and probably boring. I don't always pick up the hidden meanings, the metaphors. I tend to take the words literally, .but enjoy the rhythms and the way words sound together...I think poetry is easier to understand if it's read aloud.
I like poems that create other worlds, taking me out of the mundane. In other words, a great escape! I have favourite poets whose work I'm very familiar with and that helps me understand their work a bit more deeply. I couldn't read an anthology in one sitting though - it would drive me crazy with so many different 'voices'.