Saeed asked to meet for our portrait shoot at the Royal Observatory Greenwich on a beautiful spring evening. As I was walking up I saw a wonderful tree and made a mental note that I might use it in our session. While I waited on the steps at the top of the hill, in the late afternoon sun, I listened to the poem Saeed shares here as a meditation on repeat and really went into it. When I opened my eyes I was surprised to find I was surrounded by a bus load of tourists all jockeying for pictures around me. I’d been so lost in his world I hadn’t noticed! There is a line in the poem that talks about “the sound waves, the form of the maze”. Which drew me back to the tree and made for the lead image in the article. We had such a lovely walk, chatting about life, football, poetry and our love of green spaces. I’m so pleased to share Saeed’s story and poetry with you, especially during World Autism Empowerment/Acceptance Month, which was an ask of his.
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Saeed
For me, poetry arrived quite spontaneously. I found solace within spoken word as a therapeutic way to express the parts of ourselves we battled with. I, myself, had a battle, a burden of the mask I wore for much of my life as an autistic person, where I felt I was doing life wrong; being perceived as the ‘odd one’ in the many rooms I walked in. I was diagnosed as pre-verbal autistic from 5, and for a while, I battled alone, figuring out why I was different. Much of the time growing up, autism was and still is perceived as a taboo within my culture, something that brought trauma and a lot of uncertainty, not just to me, but in my environment. It was hard, but over time, it reminded me of the resilience I had gained, finding relief in expressing my experiences to help me find grace and inspire others who face the burden.
It’s why I took this project on for Autism Empowerment/Acceptance Month. I don’t want to be accepted as I am. I want to be free to be the best version of me I can be. Not the version that is most comfortable for a normative society.
I wrote my first poem, Carrying the Burden of the Mask, which eventually became the first piece I performed back at BYOB (Bring Your Own Bars) in September 2025. I realised at that moment, although the word 'autism' isn’t included in the poem, that I was going to be public-facing with this. I suddenly recognised the little boy in me, the one who felt like there wasn’t an outlet to speak up on this, especially being a Somali, where this is a taboo in our community. I want to feel like no one is alone and that a community, regardless of anyone’s neurodiversity, is out there. A place to provide a haven in a world that is not set up for us. I decided to share, and I didn’t realise I’d ever receive the support I did. Since then, I have explored my autism through its wonderful scope of what keeps me sane, and this eventually led to my second poem, which I give to you here...
Drift Away And Dream
Drift Away and Dream of the world
within your subconscious state of flow that is only shaped by one
And that’s you, only you and only I.
It’s beautiful, isn’t it
where there’s complexity and simplicity
of world-building,
we associate as the dreamers we are,
almost every night as I forge my dreams
It's simple when you drift away in a stream
of dreams that will bring a scene of a world that could have been, but can it still be seen?
The sounds of the night owl call
the signal as I yawn,
My mind heads towards the clouds
as the pupils constrict
and the subconsciousness soothes through the sane as I listen to these waves through the Soundcore in my eardrum, let the waves lead the way to my world, my kingdom.
The sound as scape
to form the depths of the soundscape
I know where to escape
The mind is on pause
sometimes I remind myself
I’m neurodivergent
the stimulation may fluctuate
as I flow and shift the thoughts of my day, the busier my brain
the less sane my mind is
and the sound waves
the form of the maze
I get lost in my ways
as my dream waves away.
The dream is an escape
from the depths of reality
that my brain cannot comprehend or grasp.
Escape, escape, escape in your space, close your eyes
and try to immerse yourself
inside this space
As you battle to subconsciously escape, don’t let the space bear the escape
let it pace slowly
and try not to race your mind
As that negates the escape.
The inception of forming this escape bears my perception
as I no longer feel the perplexion,
let the inception
create my own perplexed world of possibilities to form my own heist
and cave through into my own mind
and fall into a limbo so deep
that I feel fibres of my own fears
where I force my rise
and breath heavy
That’s how the complexion of my dreams is created.
The world needs more world-builders
The start of building a world
worth escaping from reality
that sets us to fail,
nurture your own universe
and see where your dreams escape towards.
On The Writing Process
I write quite introspectively; I always start with self-reflections to inject an idea. I try to write my poems from the inspiration of my feelings in the moment I am in. Whilst reflecting, I tend to write in a way that creates an alternate world and character based on the parts of me. A lot of what I write is experimental, unconventional, and thought-provoking. As I start to be more open about my neurotype, I feel more inclined to write about what I go through as an autistic person, as a form of therapy to paint a picture through words that people may not understand what I and many others who are neurodivergent go through.
Writing overall is therapy for me; I never sit and force myself to write, it must come naturally, that’s where my best work comes. One thing about poetry that I have appreciated is how it celebrates imperfection, not just writing but performance too, which allows more room for experimentation, which is where, in my opinion, you’ll get the truer original pieces of work, which is very cool.
A lot of my poems are born of that. I recently wrote one without the use of the letter ‘E’ at all, not once but twice as well. Taking inspiration from other poets who also wrote a poem from A-Z. All of this has sparked me to explore even more ways to experiment with my writing process.
Over the course of my journey, I often gravitate to my personal experiences, especially how fast life seems to be moving for me. So, drawing back to the younger me, what stories would I want to tell that I couldn’t find words for back then and create an arc out of it!
A key component of my writing process is music; I can’t write without listening to an instrumental beat to write therapeutically. I love going on an escape with my writing fully immersed in my own world, where I suddenly get that dopamine hit and hit a stride when writing haiku after haiku.
Favourite poets, poetry nights, books or other resources
I’m not one to pick out poets in the London community scene, as everyone that I have connected with and become close with over time is amazing, and have allowed me to feel safe, to be raw and vulnerable.
My route into poetry was unorthodox, as I didn’t know the established poets, only the ones in the London community scene you’d see at the various open mics across the capital. When I get asked my favourite ones, I’d say them.
I have had the pleasure of stopping by so many poetry events that capture the true essence of community, some to pick out here:
If Poets Ruled the World
Crossword Lyric
BYOB
Dare to Speak
Windows to the Spirits
Testing Ground
Write Speak Recover, in collaboration with TheNeverPress is an open, free collection of original portraits of poets using their art to find strength in their recovery journey from any form of dis-ease.
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If you need support, here are some resources:
Samaritans
Alcohol Change
Recovery Dharma
Alcoholics Anonymous
This article was brought to you by Tim Foley and Graham Thomas.