Australian poet Les Murray (1938 to 2019) authored numerous collections of poetry. He was awarded the Australian Literature Society’s Gold Medal, the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, and was considered an Australian Living Treasure (Poetry Foundation, 2021). Murray was parent to an autistic child and described himself as autistic (Tammet, 2009):
Asperger, mais. Asperg is me. The coin took years to drop: Lectures instead of chat. The want of people skills. The need for Rules. Never towing a line from the Ship of Fools. The avoided eyes. Great memory. (Les Murray, 2006, in Baron, 2008, p. 108)
One of his best-known poems is “The Cows on Killing Day”. Though this poem is not explicitly about ASD, it clearly shows that people with autism do possess the attributes necessary for creativity. In this poem Murray presents the experience of a cow witnessing another cow slaughtered, skinned, and its parts thrown to the dog. The poem shows, first, that people with autism are imaginative and don't lack empathy, and second, the special relationship many people with autism have with non-human animals.
Impaired imagination is one of the classic diagnostic criterion of autism, and this impaired imagination is thought to limit theory of mind, empathy, and creativity (Baron, 2008; Mills, 2008). An increasing volume of material created by people with autism challenges the long-held and pernicious myth that people with autism lack empathy. Autistic people do not lack affective empathy, and are able to feel what other living beings are feeling (Wallace-Iles, 2018). As autistic blogger, poet, and playwright Rhi Lloyd-Williams (2017, n.p.) notes, “The more time I spend on this Earth, the more I realise that true empathy needs an excellent imagination to go with it”. Murray’s poem evidences a strong capacity for imagination and empathy. Poetry is “the art form of contemplation” and poets “undertake long periods of introspection” (Baron, 2008, p. 103). As with Peter Myers’ description of being ‘in the zone’, Murray claimed he composed his poems in a trance: “It’s an integration of the body-mind and the dreaming-mind and the daylight-conscious-mind” (Murray cited in Poetry Foundation, 2021, n.p.).
Not all people with autism respond positively to animals, yet a great number “love dogs and are instantly attracted to them” (Grandin, 2008, p. 7), and commonly feel intense connections to animals, forming deep bonds with them (Wallace-Iles, 2018). Temple Grandin famously, though perhaps unfortunately, uses her affinity for animals to improve their experience in the slaughterhouse (Grandin, 2012). The presence of an animal reduces the stress of people with autism in their home and in social situations (O’Haire et al., 2015). Importantly, for people with autism, it could be easier to imagine the minds of animals than of humans (Cross, Farha, & Atherton, 2019).
People with autism are rich in imagination, and often care deeply for non-human animals. Murray has been able to introspect on the experience of a cow, and to create a vision of the world as a cow might see it. The knife is a shining leaf, the farmer a wolf-at-the-calves. There is no impaired imagination evident in this poem. Further, it shows, and encourages in readers, a profound empathy for the non-human animal Murray imagines.
References
Baron, M. (2008). Autism – a creative process? Poetry, poets, imagination. Popular Narrative Media, 1(1), 103–114.
Cross, L., Farha, M., Atherton, G. (2019). The animal in me: Enhancing emotion recognition in adolescents with autism using animal filters. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 49(11), 4482–4487, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04179-7
Grandin, T. (2012). Livestock behaviour, design of facilities and humane slaughter. Dr. Temple Grandin’s Website, http://www.grandin.com/
––––––. (2008). Foreword. In M. Pavlides (Ed.), Animal-assisted Interventions for Individuals with Autism (pp. 7–9). Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Lloyd-Williams, R. (2017). Empathy, imagination, and autism. Autism and Expectations: De-Mystifying Autism, https://autistrhi.com/2017/08/30/empathy-imagination-and-autism/
Mills, B. (2008). Autism and imagination. In M. Osteen (Ed.), Autism and Representation (pp. 117–132). Routledge.
O’Haire, M., McKenzie, S., Beck, A., Slaughter, V. (2015). Animals may act as social buffers: Skin conductance arousal in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in a social context. Developmental Psychobiology, 57(5), 584–595, DOI 10.1002/dev.21310
Poetry Foundation. (2021). Les Murray. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/les-murray
Tammet, D. (2019, May 3). My friend and mentor Les Murray: Autistic savant. Financial Review. https://www.afr.com/life-and-luxury/arts-and-culture/my-friend-and-mentor-les-murray-autistic-savant-20190502-p51jba
Wallace-Iles, H. (2018, August 6). Autistic people and empathy: What’s the real story? The Art of Autism, https://the-art-of-autism.com/autistic-people-empathy-whats-the-real-story/