Happy plaid mice month!

April is plaid mice month, or as most people call it, Autism Awareness month or Poetry month, depending on which community you're part of. I happen to belong to both. What better time than April to talk about writing a collection of autism poetry! So I'm bringing my mommy and professional selves together (hopefully they play nice) and posting this on both Plaiditudes and 37 Mice.

Today is the birthday of my writing group co-founder (Happy birthday, Joanne Epp) - it's hard to believe that we only started meeting this past winter after a mutual friend invited us on an outing to the museum and we discovered we both write poetry. For the past four months, I've been meeting biweekly with Meira Cook (who's been called the greatest living Canadian poet) to hone my skills through the Manitoba Writers' Guild mentorship program. A year ago, I didn't belong even belong to the writers' guild yet!

A year ago, I also hadn't visited the Manitoba Adolescent Treatment Centre parent group, or attended any Asperger Manitoba events, joined the Autism Winnipeg Facebook page, or met any of the PACE (parents of autistic children everyone) entrepreneurs like Mike, Ljubica, and Ruby Lou, who've become good friends.

It's amazing what can happen in a year. Now I'm writing a collection of poems about the devastating and celebratory moments I've shared on Plaiditudes: the drug trials and side effects, assessments and diagnoses, judgmental stares and kick-ass Christmas performances.

A friend and fellow artist asked why I didn't write my life as a book of stories in addition my poetry. Perhaps someday I will, but for now, I'm so in love with the art of poetry, the intensity of emotion that just a few devastating or playful words can evoke, that I don't have eyes for any other genre. Through my blog, I gain perspective and find meaning in the affectionately exasperated "better laugh than cry" experiences of parenting autism, but through poetry, I don't only find beauty: I create it.

And on Thursday May 3, 7:30, at St. Margaret's Anglican Church, Winnipeg, I'll be reading from my collection at Joanne Epp's chapbook launch, along with two of my favourite poets Sarah Klassen and Sally Ito. The event is free and open to the public.

I'll be wearing turquoise, but the busy mice in my head will be decked out in plaid.