Neil Marcus

THE METAPHOR OF WIND IN CRIPPLE POETICS

How can I speak of cripple and not mention the wind.
How can I speak of crippled and not mention the heart.
Heart, wind, song, flower, space, time, love. To leave
these absent is to leave cripple in stark terms.
As if we were made of medical parts and not flesh and bone.

There is always wind in my cripple
Off shore breezes.
Scented nightflowering vines.
Wild salsa dances that run past midnight

Cripple is not extraordinary or ordinary.
Cripple is a full plate
A blown about newspaper
An ox in a rice field, ploughing earth.

Neil Marcus ... Film actor. Butoh dancer. Contact improvisational lover. Occasional guest lecturer on the subject of disability and performance theory and practice. As a writer, dancer, actor, philosopher and visual artist and poet he has worked with the key idea that disability is an Art. He is currently writing his memoirs In the presence of Wow. With Petra Kuppers, he is the co-author of Cripple Poetics.