Reflection

Experiment 3: Poem

I may be a writer, but I am not an expert poet by any means. For that reason, I was apprehensive to take on this experiment. But I have a lot to say when it comes to people with special needs, and through research I began to become even more impassioned. Because I have exposure to and knowledge of people with special needs and their experiences, I want to distribute what I know to those that don’t. A poem can do just this. Its inherent aural quality makes it something that needs to be heard, and its rhythm makes people want to read it. At first, I considered writing the poem from the point of view of a person with autism, but I made the conscious decision not to. Although I am knowledgeable, I don’t believe I have the authority to write from their point of view. Instead, I wrote what I know: from the point of view of someone that knows and loves people on the spectrum. And that part of the poem was fun— I had tons of things to potentially write down and lots of ideas for the poem as a whole.

On the other hand, it still felt sort of weird to be writing the possible thoughts and feelings of a person with autism. I wasn’t writing them in first person, but I still felt inauthentic, like those thoughts weren’t mine to be sharing; who knew if they were even accurate at all? Of course, there are parts to the poem that are about me and my experiences, my favorite things about some of the people I know, my observations, etc. Perhaps the torn feeling that I had was just due to the section of the poem that I decided to create. I decided to create that section, though, because I think it’s one of the more important ones, as it’s directed directly at people who put down people with special needs. I feel strongly about the discrimination that people with special needs face, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to make this poem.

If I were to continue to create this poem, I would focus more on my own experiences. Perhaps instead of writing about how the people with autism feel in the sample section, I will write about how my heart breaks for them every time they experience prejudice. This way, I can feel comfortable writing about what I know, but still make a compelling argument for typically developing people to hear.