Tell Them It Was Mozart

by Angeline Schellenberg

Overview

Linked poems that uncover the ache and whimsy of raising children on the autism spectrum.

Through public judgments, detouring dreams and unspoken prayers, Tell Them It Was Mozart, Angeline Schellenberg's debut collection, traces both a slow bonding and the emergence of a defiant humour. This is a book that keens and cherishes, a work full of the earthiness and transcendence of mother-love. One of the pleasures of this collection is its playful range of forms: there are erasure poems, prose poems, lists, found poems, laments, odes, monologues and dialogues in the voices of the children, even an oulipo that deconstructs the DSM definition of autism. From a newborn "glossed and quivering" to a child conquering the fear of strange toilets, Tell Them It Was Mozart is bracing in its honesty, healing in its jubilance.

Michelangelo slept in his clothes and seldom ate Newton lectured to empty rooms at scheduled times if no one showed up to hear him—Only staying where room numbers were divisible by three, Tesla tested turbines in his mind, would not touch round objects—Charles Darwin formulated the theory of natural selection, the foundation for our understanding of the diversity of life on earth: advantageous traits survive Mozart meowed on tables — from "Posthumously diagnosed"

Praise for Tell Them It Was Mozart:
"By turns, Angeline Schellenberg's words are blunt, musical, unflinching, transcendent. Her speaker raises two children on the autism spectrum, but she is never a martyr, never a victim, never a saint. Schellenberg has drawn a woman who turns the experience inside out — finding its humour, its turbulence, and ultimately, its joy." — Kimmy Beach

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781771314428
Publisher:	Brick Books
Publication date:	09/01/2016
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.70(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Angeline Schellenberg's poetry has appeared in Prairie Fire, CV2, TNQ, Rhubarb, Room, Geez, Wordgathering, Lemon Hound, and The Society, as well as in anthologies. Her first chapbook, Roads of Stone (The Alfred Gustav Press), was released in May 2015. Her poetry won third prize in the 2014 Banff Centre Bliss Carman Poetry Award Contest and was shortlisted for Arc Poetry Magazine's 2015 Poem of the Year. Angeline lives in Winnipeg with her husband, their two teenagers, and a German shepherd/corgi.

Table of Contents

I Rhythmically, in the Dark

1980 El Camino 3

X 4

The Hopes and Fears of All the Years 6

Our Garden of Thorns 7

The Test 9

Clue 10

Freshman Reading 11

Family Ties 12

Rail coach 13

Ultrasound 14

Labour 16

It's a Boy 17

While You Churned 18

I was never diagnosed 19

The Nature of Nurture 20

My Undoing 21

Watching Him Sleep 1 22

The Runaway Housewife at One a.m. 23

When I Knew I Loved You 24

Interior Lighting 25

Your First Year 26

Crossing that Bridge 27

The Diminutive Professor Takes Off 28

Purple Squirrel! 29

The Runaway Housewife at Two p.m. 30

Your greatest fear 31

Vaccination 32

Watching Him Sleep 2 33

Echolalia (the Monologue) 34

The Imaginative Child Takes a Bath 36

The Diminutive Professor Visits the Duck Pond 37

Saints 38

Pain Threshold 39

II It's Not What They Say

The Diminutive Professor Takes a Walk 43

Cycle-ogy 1 44

The Little Hand Is at the One 45

Why I Am Honest with the Therapist about My Part-Time Job, Waffle Makers, and Bon Jovi 46

You Must Believe in Life after Yesterday 47

Certainty 48

Cycle-ogy 2 49

I Am a Refrigerator Mother 50

Clone 51

Beyond Words 52

We Leave with a Label 53

Absorbed 54

Autism for Dummies 1 55

The Other You 57

Drug Trial 58

Cycle-ogy 3 59

What Doctors Took Seven Years to Discover 60

DSM-5: Aphorism Speculum Disorder (ASD) 61

Waving 63

We Leave with a Sticker Chart 64

Support Group 1 65

The Diminutive Professor Takes Summer Vacation 66

Autism for Dummies 2 67

The "Building Blocks of Attachment" Program 68

It's Not What They Say 69

The Imaginative Child Contemplates a Drug Bust 70

What I Told the School Division Bigwig in My Head after the Meeting 71

High 72

Echolalia (the Sibling Dialogue) 73

New Year's Eve Fireworks at the Forks 75

Vasectomy 76

(Sic) 77

To Make an Aspie 78

The Imaginative Child Gets a Dog 79

Zoo 80

Parents' Weekend Off 81

Delayed 82

Unable to Show Grief 83

What Happened after He Coloured Outside the Line 84

The Imaginative Child Breaks a Leg 85

For Us 86

Support Group 2 87

III For Good

This morning you feel a crackle 91

The Diminutive Professor Has a Party 92

Autism for Dummies 3 93

The Imaginative Child Aces Grade Three Math 94

Butterflies 95

Support Group 3 96

Pillow Talk 97

Campground Shower 98

Camping 99

The Imaginative Child Storms the Beach 100

Corporophobia: the Fear of Strange Toilets 101

Taste and See 102

Faith 104

The Diminutive Professor Stays Close 105

Posthumously Diagnosed 106

Fortune Cookies 107

My Front Row Seat 108

Echolalia (the Sibling Rivalry) 109

I Choose You 110

Support Group 4 111

To Make a More Imperfect Person 112

Anything Besides 113

The Imaginative Child Goes to Bed 114

Confession 115

Notes 119

Thank You 122