A Writer's Notebook, One-Thousand-Eight-Hundred-And-Ten

Earlier today I found out about a special event happening at Zak The Bakers throughout this month in collaboration witb O Miami: the bakery is giving out loaves of bread in exchange for poems.  Heating about this, I was rather delighted: the idea of trading a poem for a long of bread is powerful.  I also have to admit a certain fondness for Zak The Baker, indeed, it is where I went for breakfast when we went to Miami on my fortieth birthday.  I was excited and was already considering taking a drive down to Miami to take part.  Then I read the details and learned that the poems must be handwritten.  As those who have followed me for a while may know, I am severely dyslexic and one of my major problems is an issue called dysgrafia  which is a specific cognitive impairment related to handwriting.  I have discussed this before, but suffice it to say that writing by hand is physically and mentally torturous for me, and the results are an illegible scrawl that looks as if it was the very first efforts of a eight year old learning to write.  Beyond the fact that asking me to write by hand is a bit like asking a person in a wheelchair to walk, I have also been mistreated because of my handwriting.  On numerous occasions I have been scolded and shamed in front of others for my penmanship, even from a college professor who was aware of my disability.  I have been accused of writing illegible on purpose, or told it is laziness or lack of care.  I can't help but feel alienated and cut off by that requirement and that hurts.  

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