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Karl Knights Profile picture
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1 Dec, 5 tweets, 3 min read
Here's two extracts from a poem called 'Parachute' for #WorldAIDSDay by Tim Dlugos, who died of AIDS thirty years ago this month. An extract from 'Parachute'...An extract from 'Parachute'...
You can read the entirety of Dlugo's poem at this link.

poetryfoundation.org/poems/55134/pa…
I'd highly recommend having a rummage around the Poetry Foundation website. Another essential #WorldAIDSDay read is this poem, 'Heartbeats' by Melvin Dixon. It would be criminal to excerpt it here, just go read it.

poetryfoundation.org/poems/146841/h…
Here is a companion piece to 'Heartbeats,' an essay on how Dixon's poem helped someone navigate a HIV diagnosis.

poetryfoundation.org/articles/14688…
Finally, here's an overview of poems that emerged from what many people called 'the plague years.' The poetry of AIDS has much to say to us today, and the work has lost none of its force or relevance. Read their words, and remember them this #WorldAIDSDay

poetryfoundation.org/articles/70183…

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More from @Inadarkwood

Karl Knights Profile picture
3 Dec
As many of you will know, I have a database of disabled poets. The most troubling gap is disabled poets writing for children. Frustratingly, a number of top-notch librarians haven't been able to find anything either. I feel like those poets are out there, right under my nose.
Some children's laureates, advocates and anthologists who will know more than me: @malorieblackman, @PieCorbett, @paulcooksonpoet, @chrisriddell50, @peaplanter, @PoetryZone — do y'all know any disabled poets writing for children? I'm absolutely desperate to find some.
What does it mean, to not be able to find a bulk of disabled children's poets? Well, it means that the mystery and confusion of writing is intensified. Because I haven't seen it done before, I haven't a clue whether the children's poems I'm writing now are worth doing.
Read 12 tweets
Karl Knights Profile picture
2 Dec
By the way, just like adult poetry, children's poetry is full of nondisabled people writing about disability, often from the first person. Depictions of disability that are either saccharine or entirely pitiable are rampant. The poems have the stink of an after school special
The poems are almost always didactic. The amount of 'this kid in a wheelchair isn't any different to you' poems I've read! Children are the most perceptive readers we have, and they can smell falsehood from a mile away. Disabled young people deserve better poems than this drivel.
Also, children's poetry sees disability as an incredibly boring monolith. For children's poetry, disability means a wheelchair and nothing else. Disabled adults and kids know disability is more diverse than that.
Read 6 tweets
Karl Knights Profile picture
20 Nov
So, let's recap. The lead actor of Sia's movie isn't autistic, and in preparation for her role, she watched Youtube videos of autistic children's meltdowns (undoubtedly filmed by their parents.) When called out, Sia replies to an autistic actor, 'maybe you're just a bad actor.'
Sia claims to have spent three years researching this movie. And yet she somehow missed that Autism Speaks is a hate group? How shallow was your research?

In many of her replies, Sia uses the term 'special abilities.' Yeah. Why is the word disabled to be avoided at all costs?

Read 14 tweets
Karl Knights Profile picture
25 Oct
One of the things that annoys me about poetry award season is that so many poets were allowed to develop and flourish thanks to Arvon courses, the Complete Works, the Ledbury Critics and so on. But what's out there for disabled poets? Who helps them to develop?
If you're a young poet or an LGBT+ poet or a poet of colour, there are avenues (though nowhere near enough) to help you hone your craft. Who's helping disabled poets thrive? What infrastructure is there to guide the disabled poets of the future?
If I was teaching one day and a young disabled poet asked me how they could develop their work, I wouldn't have a damn clue where to direct them. Not just UK poetry, but world poetry fails not only young disabled poets but disabled poets period, over and over again.
Read 10 tweets
Karl Knights Profile picture
24 Oct
Today's Dodge Poetry Festival schedule has included readings from Lambda Literary, Kundiman, as well as panels on climate justice and poetry, and the many poetries that exist in America. It's so nice to be able to catch up on the events I miss the following day, too. #DPF2020
Due to the time difference, a lot of the evening events happen from midnight onwards, so it's wonderful to be able to catch up on what I missed the following day. I've been waking up and sipping my morning coffee while watching the previous evening's events
Edward Hirsch read a poem by Adrienne Rich which I had forgotten, called 'Dedications.' It has lines like this, 'I know you are reading this poem/in a room where too much has happened for you to bear.' #DPF2020
Read 5 tweets

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