Poem: I Am the Pace of My Body and Not Language
By Adam Wolfond Selected by Victoria Chang
Adam Wolfond’s poem is mostly written in declaratives, giving it a sense of confidence. As a nonspeaking autistic artist, prose writer and poet, Wolfond uses language as an invitation to witness and engage where evanescence arises from multiplicity, not uniformity and convention. (Note: The blue line does not correspond with the original text but has been recreated in collaboration with the editors of the magazine.)
I Am the Pace of My Body and Not Language
By Adam Wolfond
I think the days of the week
are paced in the line of rocks
and the water of the ocean
Water talks by pacing waves against them
Rocks respond by allowing their surfaces to be worn
Time is perceived by the appreciation
or language but I am
the pace or my body
and not language
I think there are many times to think about
I want people to understand how hard it is
to always type
My rhythm is long and continuous
not as noises in my head
The noises are forging want
or the howling wind
The noises are in the want
to talk
But I feel the way I always go toward the calm body
Time is perceived by the appreciation
or language but I am
the pace of my body
and not language
and line the rally that I can feel.
Victoria Chang is a poet whose latest book of poems is ”The Trees Witness Everything” (Copper Canyon Press, 2022). Her fifth book of poems, ”Obit” (2020), was named a New York Times Notable Book and a Time Must-Read. Adam Wolfond is the author of ”The Wanting Way” (Milkweed Editions, 2022). He is an autistic poet, an artist, a graduate student and a co-founder/co-director of dis assembly: neurodivergent arts collective.