The Boy in the Labyrinth by Oliver de la Paz

The Boy in the Labyrinth contains a series of mostly-prose poems organized as a classical Greek ode/play with Strophe, Antistrophe, Epode, etc. But this isn’t simple retelling of Greek mythology. It’s a brilliant structural choice for employing imagery of a boy’s experience and perceptions in the Minotaur’s labyrinth for the purpose of exploring a child’s experience and perceptions of autism. The book is complex and complicated, but the language and imagery are so clear, the reader never feels outside. In fact, the reader is brought into the head of the autistic child, the child in the dark labyrinth with a creature that is both human, and beast. de la Paz intersperses the episodes within the labyrinth (within the autistic brain experience) with grounding poems such as Autistic Screening Questionnaires and mathematically-coded Story Problems. The book reminds us regularly of the human, contemporary, familial stakes. And de la Paz is the perfect poet (and parent) for this undertaking—he is someone who has always seen the world through an unusual, kind, and beautiful lens. He’s someone who cares for language and image, and who desires to understand the different in the world. His background in magical realism works well with an investigation into minds fundamentally different than his own, with tenderness and kindness and no trace of blame or pity. This is a wonderful and fascinating book. Buy here.

From “Autism Screening Questionnaire: Speech and Language Delay”

. . . 5. Does your child have difficulty understanding basic things "(“just can’t get it”)?

Against the backdrop of the tree he looks so small.

6. Does your child pull you around when he wants something?

By the sleeve. By the shirttail. His light touch

hopscotching against my skin like sparrows.

An insistence muscled and muscled again.

7. Does your child have difficulty expressing his needs or desires using gestures?

Red-faced in the kitchen and in the bedroom,

and the yellow light touches his eyes

which are open but not there. His eyes

rest in their narrow boat dream, and the canals

are wide dividing this side from this side.

. . .

From “Episode 1: Labyrinth”

The boy in the labyrinth holds a torch before him. He cannot see his shadow, which behind him swims in a somnambulant glaze. Winds tighten around the boy’s body and his torch so that the universe lowers its eye to this den beneath the earth. Blossoms of fire flit from crevasses. The boy thinks, to be guided through the labyrinth is to be guided by bodies filling with light. The universe thinks, there are the stars. There and there and there.