Creative Representation

I tried to find the words but they wouldn’t come
struggling to write, all my thoughts come undone
overwhelmed by the burden
of representation
of real people with a real story
so I added creativity

Swapping out one truth for another
Replacing one place with the other
removed from context, out of time
Freed up these stories, theirs not mine
their many truths overlapped in rhyme

Through this I found the words, their words
Their expression, their phrasing, their terms
to do justice to their stories, contexts
to make sense of relationships so complex
offers an analysis that respects complex contexts

I thought academia was not for me
Seeking representation through my degree
Searching across all those black and white pages
Assuming universalism through the ages

Such claims to truth yet they did not speak to me
I really tried but this ‘truth’ I could not see
So I abandoned these rules and disciplines
To tell different truths, find new beginnings
I share my research with the words that best fit
Trying to worry less about who gets it

So dear reader perhaps you cannot relate
To any of the issues on which I prate
To my queer focus on temporalities
Or celebration of non-normative bodies
But at least this research is not hard to read
Focusing instead on accessibility
Yet offers a rainbow of complexity
And understandings outside stark binaries

Maybe being Out it makes space in HE
Making it easier for others like me
An academic activist? Try to be
Embracing creative sociology
While still somewhat interdisciplinary
Or maybe I just like language and poetry