Submitted by Janine on
You expressed your opinion.
In response, I expressed my opinion,
which was different from your opinion
In response to me expressing an opinion
different from your opinion
You shouted
I'M ENTITLED TO EXPRESS MY OPINION!
as though by expressing an opinion
at variance with your opinion
I had been denying your right to express your opinion
which, of course, I hadn't.
Submitted by Janine on
The all-autistic theatre company performed this show in Brighton in June 2019. Janine and fellow performers offer insights into autistic experience through poetry and personal testimonies.
Submitted by Janine on
Janine addresses the protest in support of Osime Brown outside the Home Office on Friday 4 September - includes the poems Free Osime Brown and Bearing Down.
Please sign Osime's petition here.
Submitted by Janine on
Last year, I wrote a poem (a pantoum) called 'This Place' about visiting my son in the adolescent psychiatric unit where he spent four months (read it here).
He now has his own flat, living independently with support. So I decided to write a follow-up poem of the same length in the same style, hoping that this will illustrate the wonderful progression.
Submitted by Janine on
I come to see you in this place
A train, a bus, a longish walk
A mask of growth veneers your face
We picnic, catch up, laugh and talk
A train, a bus, a longish walk
They brought you here to make you well
We picnic, catch up, laugh and talk
You've questions, jokes and tales to tell
Submitted by Janine on
Why do you like that tuneless music?
Wear your hair the way you choose it?
I think you get it it, then you lose it
Why can’t you just be normal?
Can’t you make yourself conform?
Do anything that’s near the norm?
Don’t you know there’s a uniform?
Why can’t you just be normal?
Submitted by Janine on
The Stealth Aspies are touring our one-hour show, Autistic Anonymous, over the next couple of months.
Digital flyer attached.
Submitted by Janine on
Submitted by Janine on
On five consecutive evenings, Janine performs her poetry as part of the remarkable hour-long Autistics Anonymous show by the Stealth Aspies at the Brighton Fringe Festival.
Submitted by Janine on
I rise to call my first dead witness
Counsel may contest his fitness
for his part to testify
to tell you how he came to die
He leads a host of souls to tell
their stories from a bitter well
of negligence and ignorance
of culpable indifference
An inquest has been held for each
but now this hearing must impeach
the system which we'll hear has let them
