書評•評書｜來自自閉症孩子們的詩

這本詩集的作者Chris Martin在開篇這樣介紹自己——（想說如果有人這樣介紹自己，除去最極端的case，which說話的人明白這樣說可以獲得認可但自己心裡並不認同話的內容以外，應該考慮繼續認真聽這個人的觀點，畢竟，能夠認識到這些的已屬不易）

"I was born near the end of a violent decade near the end of a violent century near the end of a violent millennium. And I was born into a body that resembled the bodies of those who have historically wielded the most power with the most violence toward the most oppressive ends. I am a White male who can selectively pass as cis, straight, able, and neurotypical. This is what Sonya Renee Taylor calls 'the default body', and its cover has given me tremendous advantages, including the ability to move through a neurotypical world with something approximating ease." 5

Chris對自己的這樣的介紹讓我不禁看了幾遍。說實在的，這樣的自我認知並不好找，而且是真切的，並沒有什麼目的地如此認知更是不好找。他進而再將社會解構："The trap of the social, which is the trap of the dominant culture-- patriarchal, white supermacist, capitalist, carceral -- is a trap of hierarchical domination. " 64

就是在這樣一種社會結構中，存在著這樣的一群孩子們，他們被診斷出自閉症，可能大多數比較嚴重，沒有辦法用語言交流的那種，但是可以通過打字或者寫字進行交流。Chris就是他們的詩歌老師。Chris通過詩歌的方式，讓這些孩子們嘗試詩歌的不同形式，以他們特有的語言習慣和看世界的方式來創作或者合作詩歌，這些詩歌，在這本書中結集出版，幾乎每一首詩都還伴有Chris的背景故事，讓一個一個的孩子們躍然紙上。

在這裡，我分享兩首，均來自Max and Mark Eati。

"I Use Patterns to Survive"

Our lives are products
of invincible codes
that create invincible patterns

257

另外一首就是作者從中抽取一句作為詩集的書名的《May》

May today be awake
May today be awake with scent
May today be awake with the scent of flowers
May today be awake with quality
May today be awake with the quality of motion
May tomorrow be awake with time
May tomorrow be awake with the reality of time
May tomorrow be awake with touch
May tomorrow be awake with the touch of zero

Awake with the scent of flowers
Flowers have a beautiful scent that awakens the senses. The 
senses are core to human experience. Flower grow to show us 
the beauty of life on Earth.

Awake with the quality of motion:
Motion is a core universal power that pulls gravity, the solar
system, and other components to line up a quality of 
experience that is unparalleled in comparison to anything else
we know. 

Awake with the reality of time: 
Time is a never-ending illusion of human life. We go about our day assuming we understand time, but it is a mystery of the 
universe. We humans are too lost in this mystery. Enough said. 

Awake with the touch of zero:
Infinity is zero point. It's a radical way of looking at the universe. 
At infinity or zero point, we are creation. We are infinite. 
Everything outside of the zero point is illusion or maya. There
are not enough words to explain the phenomenon of how the 
universe works. The proof for this is in the pudding. 

261-262

這些詩，比之很多活在「default body」裡且擁有很多資源的詩人要好很多，然而，在主流社會，他們卻難以被接納。詩歌成了他們的出口，也成了我們一窺他們內心世界的小小契機。

Chris寫到，Mark Eati曾經提醒他，「no one is a single self.」「We are multiple and interconnected in our multiplicity. We live in and through relationship.」

當然，每個人都有人生的領悟，該領悟可能是基於自己的觀察也或許來自身邊的關係或者成長的經歷，但是，無論領悟怎樣，誰也不應該就預設另一個人/另一類人的領悟有多高尚，反之亦然。

be humble。去欣賞世界。