Being a poet isn’t just about finding a pretty sky and writing about it (though this is important too!)

Poetry can send a message. Poetry can be a reclamation. Poetry can make a statement.

I wrote ’Liminality’ a few weeks ago when I was thinking about my own gender identity.

Over the past few months I’ve come to realise that I’m non-binary: I don’t identify with the term ’man’, despite being told I was one all my life, but I don’t feel like a woman either.

My gender presentation is pretty ambiguous too, and that makes some people uncomfortable.

I don’t see my clothes as anything other than clothes, but strangers in the street sometimes feel the need to comment, confront or harass.

Manx Youth Bard Brintha Yasodaran and I are submitting a joint petition to get all gender identities protected under the Equality Act.

A physical version is needed for Tynwald, so Brintha and I are carrying around paper copies to our events, like the poetry slam, this Friday at 8pm in Port St Mary Town Hall.

We are also approaching local businesses to hold copies of the petition at their premises.

So far it is available in Sound Records and at Windsor Coffee.

In this same vein, I’m organising an event on Sunday 21st November from 6pm to 9pm at Mother T’s in Laxey: Queering The Narrative, an evening of poetry, film and food.

We’ll be watching Alice Junior, a coming-of-age rom-com about a trans girl in Brazil, and I’ll be reading poetry that, like the film, explores themes of resistance and queer joy.

As always, more details about everything Bard (including where to find the petition and how to reserve you spot at events) can be found on The Manx Bard Facebook page or by emailing [email protected].

Liminality

It’s okay to exist in that space between

Not knowing

Not being certain

Is okay

To be both here

And there

And neither

To be both boy

And girl

And neither

Beyond and between

Around and through

Distracting and dissuading and evading

Not having an answer

Or even a question

It’s okay

Not to know

After all

Does anyone?

Does anyone really know?

You are still so young

An infinite and non-linear timescape expands before you

Ululating waves and undulating vibrations and unfurling tryptichs

Of pink and blue and green and purple and yellow

Galaxies of every colour you could imagine

You have time to figure it out

(Or not)

(It’s up to you!)