Fist Blinking
The neurodivergent
struggles to reach.
The neurodivergent
struggles to reach out.
Forget instruction manuals
and the secret scripts
of human relationships.
Hear parliamentary owls
in the evening breeze.
The neurodivergent
struggles to receive.
The neurodivergent
struggles to be received.
Stare at the ceiling
lost to time passing
but ever thankful
the roof doesn’t cave in.
A knock at the door
— Get up! Get up! Get up!
from too comfortable chair.
There is time enough
to wonder why they
didn’t use the buzzer.
The persistent knocking
reminds of the last migraine
and the one before.
The neurodivergent
is in the mirror.
The neurodivergent
is in my mirror.
Someone raises the bat,
breaks the mirror,
a shattering like that
of an old window pane.
They pick up the shards
as if mere puzzle pieces,
arranging them in ways
I must refuse.
When they raise
their voices in anger,
I smile in reflex a smile
not under my control.
They raise their volume, but
all I’ve ever known is that fear.
The scripts keep getting revised
and I just can’t keep up with it.
©2022 David Alec Knight All rights reserved.
While in high school in Chatham, Ontario, David Alec Knight and his parents were told by a teacher there that he would be lucky to finish high school, and certainly wouldn’t make it through university. One of David’s English teachers, Bernard Cameron, saw something in his poems though and encouraged him to pursue his writing. He also attended workshops led by the poet, Ted Plantos, when he was writer-in-residence at the Chatham library.
David ended the ’90s studying Creative Writing at the University of Windsor (B.A. Hon.). While there, his poems appeared in Wayzegoose, People’s Poetry Letter, and Canadian Writers Journal. Anthology appearances include, The Sandwich Mill Anthology (1997), $10.00 Cash Value: An Anthology of Assets (2000), Ellipsis… (2008), By The Wishing Tree (2021), Poets For Ukraine – Volume 1 (2022), Muse (2022),and Love Lies Bleeding (2022). Recent poems have appeared in Verse Afire, Cajun Mutt Press and The Lothlorien Poetry Journal.
David’s work journeys honestly through darkness before there is any light, so it is well earned and substantial when there is reprieve. He speaks with his own voice, but he acknowledges as inspiration and influence, Edgar Lee Masters, Carl Sandburg, Gregory Corso, Charles Bukowski, Irving Layton, Ted Plantos, E. J. Pratt, and Paul-Marie Lapointe. Margaret Atwood’s Journals of Susanna Moodie and Irving Layton’s A Wild And Peculiar Joy are most reread in his library.
Since graduating from St. Clair College in 2014/15, David has worked in healthcare as a Personal Support Worker. In 2021, he was recipient of The Ted Plantos memorial Award for Poetry. The Heart Is A Hollow Organ, David’s first book, soon followed.
Leper Mosh is David’s second collection of poems.
Coming Soon from Cajun Mutt Press on September 20th, 2022!!!
“David Alec Knight’s ‘Leper Mosh‘ is an amalgamation of beauty and darkness. From waxing nostalgic about a youth of heavy metal, horror films, and comics to turning mirrors into windows of a woman’s soul, this book hits with full-throttle force. Even at its more bittersweet or softer moments, there is an underlying edge that runs the gamut of this book. With lines like: “Outside, distant sirens prowl. We reach for the first dark and our desires make light,” Knight’s repertoire of emotive language makes ‘Leper Mosh‘ a poignant read and a definite keeper. Any fan of poetry will love this book.”
—Heath Brougher, editor-in-chief of Concrete Mist Press
“The secret Knight is letting the reader in on… Well you already know, but you hide from it, you ignore it, you bury it. But, there is no getting past Knight’s willingness to dive into the morose, the malaise and the madness of life. This collection of poems is filled with gems and insight, and an unflinching look at a life unfurled.”
—Rob Azevado (Don’t Order The Calamari, Turning on The Wasp)