Autistic God - Paperback

by Kelsie Olds (Author)

O Sovereign Lord, I have forgotten how to speak
Forgotten how to pray, forgotten how to sing
I type instead
I think instead
I open a door to let you in my head
O Sovereign Lord, I have forgotten how to speak
But O! I remember how to love!

Raised in evangelical Christianity, author and occupational therapist Kelsie Olds hyperfixated on the "rules" for being a good Christian and a good kid. Nearly thirty years later, they find themselves grappling with burnout and religious trauma, parenting their own children from a paradigm utterly anathema to the framework of their upbringing. Here, they explore that journey through raw and authentic writing that will resonate with the "queer, neurodivergent, ex-vangelical poetry lovers, and also anybody who loves one".

Autistic God is a series of poems and prosaic essays on neurodivergence, faith, mystery, righteousness, and love. They reject the fundamentalist framework of knowing all the answers, and instead grapple honestly with the feeling of groundlessness that comes from renouncing dogma in the earnest pursuit of nonviolent belief, of "loving neighbor as self", of the necessity of loving self that precedes that.