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Eros of Bathing Stimming Dancing Pacing

Adam Wolfond

Mostly I want to rake in the people
to understand the ways of pacing real thoughts
the feeling way

pace pace pace the talking
and type type type the thinking

and the two will rally
and become

Pace names the ways of thinking
and typing feels the ways of pacing

every string games
the perfect love in movement
in real relation
with inspirational rights
of people like me

Having the lust dancing in giving life to feel
the names of categories dancing
out of bounds
is amazing to play

and I get a thrill guessing
the way people will respond
to me and my open
languaging

language is the pavement answering
the way and I am the water
bathing and living
lustfully

Main idea in the eros of autism is the pace
dancing so I feel
fantastic like rallying ocean waves
carrying me like a boogie
board of puttering
on top of the warm water

Mind is lavishing
in the ideas in the eros
pacing
give me some examples

Love the power I have been bathing autistically
and living stimming dancing

the pacings
opening that field of thinking toward
artful liberation

from people who think autism is a problem
and janitors of diversity
live in that world

where simple cleanup
is bigger problem

lusting real ludicrous idea
that we need clean perfect people

I fastly make need
jumping always
on the page

Adam Wolfond, “Eros of Bathing Stimming Dancing Pacing,” from The Wanting Way, Copyright © 2022, Milkweed Editions (Multiverse Series).

About The Author

Adam Wolfond writes from and about his experience as a non-verbal individual with autism. He is part of Dis assembly, a neurodiverse arts co-lab doing artistic research on process and relation; non speaking autism and languaging; faciliation and care; gathering and study. Adam is also an artist, university lecturer, and the author of The Wanting Way (Milkweed Editions, 2022).

The first time I heard one of Adam’s poems, I felt both refreshed and very much at home. 

The way Adam employs words conjures how a dancer employs his body to language human experience: Wolfond’s words march, shimmy, skip, and twirl. They invite me into a vibrant and intimate relationship with — dare I say — the experience of experiencing. They are alive, crisp, bare, honest. While not entirely non-conceptual, Adam’s poems are truly experiences for the listener or reader.

“Eros of Bathing, Stimming, Dancing, Pacing” reminds me of moments in authentic movement practice when the possibility of something new arises out of an inner impulse or image that finds the lightest, truest of outer forms — a gesture, a rhythm, a nuanced shift of the eyes under the closed eyelids — before that form gets burdened with heavy concepts and stories — tired and too familiar.

I work with many people say they don’t fit into society’s boxes: boxes they were “supposed” to fit into. Many have found relief, self-acceptance, and empowerment by coming to realize they are on the autism spectrum, are people with sensory processing sensitivity (formerly, “highly sensitive individuals”), otherwise neurodivergent, or queer. I think Adam’s work holds much for folks like us — and at least as much for those who identify with being neurotypical. I’m pleased Adam has allowed me to share one of his works, here, with you. 

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