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Beany Brain #41: Autistic People Can't Write Poetry
Abigail Munday
May 14, 2025
Beany Brain: loving our jumping-bean brains!
Welcome to this issue of the Beany Brain! I hope today’s newsletter will bounce us up as we contemplate the upsides and challenges of being neurodivergent, a little beauty, some creativity, and just general yeehawesomeness.
Table of Contents
Photo by Abigail Munday
Autistic People Can’t Write Poetry
Dr. Who?
Oh wait. That’s right. RFK Jr. has no medical qualifications.
But he thinks he can speak for the autistic community.
Or against the autistic community.
I think this might be one of the longest titles ever for an article: “RFK Jr. said many autistic people will never write a poem − even though there’s a rich history of neurodivergent poets and writers.”
Honestly, I don’t even want to see his words, but here are some snippets of his quotes that they shared in the above article:
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently declared autism a national “epidemic,” calling it a “preventable disease” that is growing at an “alarming rate.”
He went on to cast autism as an “individual tragedy” that “destroys families,” while stating that many autistic people will “never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write a poem, they’ll never go out on a date.”
Um.
Hello.
The article goes on to name drop a bunch of autistic poets, including this one:
In writer and poet Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay’s 2010 poem “Misfit,” the speaker of the poem notes that other people often ostracize him for his differences. But he doesn’t care:
My hands, as usual, were flapping
The birds knew I was Autistic;
They found no wrong with anything.
I just love that.
And I actually found quite a lot of poets I want to go read now.
Chris Martin is neurodivergent, a poet, and an educator. He helps his autistic students find their voices through writing and expressing their own poems.
He describes this work in “May Tomorrow Be Awake: On Poetry, Autism, and Our Neurodiverse Future,” a book that’s part memoir of Martin’s own journey and part poetry anthology of his students’ poetry.
I thought I’d leave you with one of my many (probably) thousands of poems that I’ve written through the years—this one was from November 2024 around Thanksgiving time. It’s called “Pie-Makin’.”
Thought I’d make it sweet potato,
But it ended up a chart:
One part messiness,
One section heart,
One wedge disorganized,
Another piece burnout,
One slice hormones,
One slab toughness,
One chunk adventure,
Another bit creativity.
One-pie poet
(And a thank-you to Thesaurus.)
Photo by Abigail Munday
Beyond Lonely, a BBC Podcast (Episode 4/5)
Still chugging along with our Beyond Lonely podcast summaries—a podcast hosted by Professor Jason Arday, an autistic person and professor of the sociology of education at Cambridge.
Episode 4 is called “Young and Lonely in the Connected World,” which was a bit misleading because Professor Arday then went on to talk a lot about elderly folks who are sidelined and lonely.
Here’s what he said about aging:
As you age, you get more lonely, especially because you “don’t want to bother people.”
Isolation is the problem.
Noreena Hertz, the economist also interviewed in past episodes, talked about a Japanese woman named Saito-san who was so lonely that she deliberately committed a crime so that she could end up in jail and therefore have community there. That is actually a growing problem in Japan with the aging population.
There are some moves to address this issue:
In South Korea, they have low-cost daytime discoteques for elderly folks, which are really meeting a need and are taking off in popularity. (Sounds fun to me, as long as the music isn’t too loud! But maybe those folks need it louder!)
In Bristol, UK, The Marmalade Trust, started by NHS occupational therapist Amy Perrin, brings people together through loneliness interventions such as tea parties, taking people out to restaurants for Christmas day, and encouraging volunteering. Ms. Perrin noticed that her occupational therapy patients were chronically lonely, and are also extremely happy to be invited out.
One guy who retired early at age 53 (how is that even possible!) found himself divorced, his child had grown up and was out of the house, and he started fighting loneliness by volunteering at a community farm, going to the community center and playing with Legos (yes, he said it felt weird at first but he loves it now), and through coaching.
Amy Perrin’s work on loneliness got her an OBE (an award from a British monarch).
She says you need to do 3 things:
Acknowledge your feelings of loneliness and that it’s temporary.
Identify what you need (everyone will be different and have different needs).
Take action: Reach out to people you know or to new ones.
Ms. Perrin also says it’s OK to enjoy your own company. Hooray, because I do!
Back to Professor Arday: As he gets older, he’s realizing more and more that he’s got agency in his own loneliness.
A good word to end on for episode 4.
Photo by Abigail Munday
Yeehawesome!
Yeehawesome! is a happy-brain roundup in each issue of Beany Brain. What’s happening that’s good in brain land? What’s bringing me joy?
Kedgeree is most definitely yeehawesome, and I’ve been making it about once a week here in the UK because I have easy access to a Sainsbury’s and hence easy access to smoked mackerel, which is the bomb. First you make a fish broth with the smoked mackerel, water, and bay leaves from the tree out in the back garden. Then you take the fish out and take the skin off it and then shred the fish and put it aside. In the pot, saute some chopped onions in oil till soft, then add frozen peas and curry powder. Add the fish broth back in with some rinsed basmati rice and let it simmer then turn it off and let it steam a few minutes till the rice is soft. To make it dairy free, add in soy cream. Then fresh lemon juice, black pepper, chopped flat-leaf parsley. Add the fish back in, stir it all up, and top with quartered boiled eggs. Put the lid on and let it all warm up together. Then top with more chopped parsley and put the pan down at your own place at the table. Even if you want to, don’t eat it all. There are 6 of you to feed. Here’s the BBC recipe I’ve been using this trip. I’m not sure how I’ll make it in Japan without that smoked fish so I’m shoveling it in while we’re here. (As per the photo we also had spinach salad, beet salad, and roasted carrots and parsnips. Paaaaarrrrsnips! A root veggie I can’t get in Japan and one that I adore.)
Rohan Mehta, a teenager in the UK, has come up with hygiene kits for homeless folks and calls them “In the Bag.” He’s doing great work and has even won awards.
This 12-minute Stuff You Should Know podcast episode about the history of Little Free Libraries and Human Libraries (thank you to my cousin for sending me the link—she knows me well). Supercalifragilisticexpialidociously interesting to moi.
Beany Brownie Points and Extra Bonus Funniness
@chuckdrawsthings
Wonderful Wednesday
Wonderful Wednesday was a day once a year in college when they would suddenly and surprisingly call off all classes and we’d play all day. The cafeteria provided special fun food and we’d do stuff outside like slip ‘n slides and jello wrestling in sumo suits. This segment of Beany Brain is dedicated to that memory of silliness and fun—no words, just a photo from the week that I’ve taken or found that reminds me to let the joy in. Since Beany Brain is published on Wednesday every week (at least, Wednesday in Japan), I hope you enjoy this Wonderful Wednesday.
Photo by Abigail Munday
Today’s Beany-full Summary:
Unfortunately the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services denigrates autistic folks and their families, but there are many examples that prove him wrong.
The Beyond Lonely podcast summaries continue. This week I shared episode 4, which included some good ideas to help combat loneliness: 1. Accept that you are lonely and that it’s temporary; 2. Identify what you need; and 3. Take action.
Go forth in Beany joy. What will help you feel yeehawesome this week?
Thank you for reading this installment of Beany Brain! You’re very welcome to hop on by any old time.
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