Marissa Faries is a neurodivergent millennial poetess. Written over a 1000 poems since she was a preteen. For the past several years her main poetic forms are crystalline, haiku/senryu, tanka, sijo, and couplets. Her neurodivergent conditions are autism, attention deficit disorder (ADD), and quiet borderline personality disorder. She is also a First Nations status Cree Canadian.

She writes poetry on many subjects to do with her personal life and inner world of thoughts and feelings. Themes included are romance, heartbreak, loneliness, depression, metaphorical or vague erotica, spirituality, and philosophical matters. She aspires to become a renowned published poetess, but finds the process to be difficult, as it is for all aspiring writers. Her personal interests are anime, astrology, video games, and art.

Marissa's spiritual belief system is all-inclusive of world religions as she found connections in all of them. She practices advanced astrology since her adolescence. Her spiritual practices are numerology, i-Ching, Tarot, oracle cards, lexigramming, meditation, binaural beats, dice fortune-telling and cartomancy. She also has the ability to dream of the future, sometimes. She believes in a Father God and a Mother Goddess. In her indigenous culture, her people believe in a Creator and practice ceremonies such as sweat lodges, night lodges, shaking tents, and praying with natural tobacco smoking.

Marissa has also had a lifelong medical history of epilepsy since infancy and her diabetes was diagnosed in her early 20's. She manages these conditions well with the proper medications. Despite all of the seizures she had through the course of her life, she still retains more than enough of her intelligence to continue writing and philosophizing. She has also lived 29 years of her life with her autism undiagnosed, having masked it as well as any autistic young women do themselves. Her goals are to lose enough weight to better manage her diabetes and to continue multivitamin and electrolyte supplementations for optimal health in the long-term.

So far in her life, she lost her paternal grandfather to pancreatic cancer in September 2021 and lost her 17-year old cousin to the drug fentanyl in May 2022. These two deaths have been a source of immense grief, but also brought on enough inspiration to write poetry to process her feelings. One of her greatest wishes is for her remaining three grandparents and her own parents to stay alive for many years to come. She also prays for the protection of her aunts, uncles, many cousins, her two siblings, and friends.

So far she is living a good life, regardless of her mental health and what may never come to be. Marissa is grateful to have the audience of PoetrySoup, as well as grateful for all of her personal connections that persist in her life.