I Am Peter

Peter had no words.

For a very long time, 30 years to be exact, he thought beautiful thoughts with no way to share them.  No one around him knew what Peter was thinking.

And then technology opened a new door for Peter.  With Facilitated Communication, Peter can now share his thoughts with the world.

For most people, words are cheap and careless and superfluous.  For Peter, they have been bought with a price.  Perhaps that is why Peter's words are priceless.  With simple elegance they create pictures in my head.  Pictures that I cannot forget.

Peter belongs to a group called The Brotherhood of the Wordless which is made up of writers and poets who are, in some way, limited in their ability to communicate.  Or, as Peter describes it:

We are without words,

but our conversation is full of wit, laced in humor

and powerful to the ears of those who are voiced

the ones whose tongues can easily roll the language off.

Come away with me to the Brotherhood?

a place where voices get in the way

and tapping is a sound of unity.

Every time I read Peter's eloquent words and see with his palette of thoughts, I know that the sparse language of the Brotherhood is to be treasured far above the excessive language of the voiced.

Will you not show me some value that I have

So I may find my own self, my own special self in nature's web?

I cannot build nations or seek fame,

but those things are not mine to do.

I love my work.  I am happy doing those things I was given to do.

If I have but one talent and use it well, is that not the best I can do?

...I cannot speak the words I feel inside;

I can only cry, a very real hurt, a very real pain.

Let my tears be as strong a call as those who shout with dignity and clarity.

I, too, have something to say.

For more of Peter's poetry, art, and books, click HERE.