Emotions and Poetry: Heart

People with ASD aren’t supposed to be empathic or understand emotions. Maybe that’s true for some of us, but not for all of us… yet it’s one of the many myths that gets trotted out time and time again.
We have problems showing our emotions; we have problems with feeling too much and being overwhelmed by them; we have difficulties with reading body language and voice tone that lead to us misunderstanding someone’s emotional state.
The one thing we don’t have is a lack of empathy!

I woke up this morning with a strong feeling filling me up. So once I’d fed SB, I sat down to figure out what it was.

Poetry can be the easiest way for me to work out why I am feeling a particular way and this morning, I was feeling so full of something that I needed to get it down before my emotion changed and I lost it again.

This is what emerged onto the page:

Heart

I am a full grown adult,
I studied biology at school.
I know the Heart’s a muscle,
And can’t get bigger as a rule.

I have a partner I adore,
I’ve lived with him for Twenty Years.
My Love for him has not decreased,
Despite the hardships and the tears.

You’d think that I could Love no other,
That my metaphorical Heart was complete.
Yet every time I’ve had a child,
My Heart’s capacity did increase.

I know the Heart’s a muscle,
It pumps the blood round my physique.
It can’t grow with each person that I Love,
But my Metaphorical Heart is unique.

With every friend I come to treasure,
With every child I bear.
With every pet whom makes me theirs,
I give them each their share.

Each of us has a physical Heart,
That keeps us upright and alive.
But it’s the Metaphorical Heart,
That helps us to survive.

– Mandy Ward, Feb 2018.

It turns out I was contemplating how its possible to love my new son so much and still love my partner, the other three children and the rest of my close family, not to mention all the animals that have ever been a part of my life and the friends that I have made over the years.

By the way, if you’re Allistic (ie: Not Autistic) and you want to know what other myths are perpetuated about those of us on the Spectrum, this is a useful article: 

Myths about Autism

Click through and have a read…

 

 

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