New Collection Mines 200 Years of Poetry by Deaf Americans
WASHINGTON, DC —“The Deaf poet is no oxymoron,” declares editor John Lee
Clark in his introduction to Deaf American Poetry: An Anthology (Gallaudet
University Press, $35.00 trade paperback). The 95 poems by 35 Deaf American
poets in this volume more than confirm his point. Theirs is a remarkable
record of development parallel to the verse of better known poets during
that period. From James Nack’s early metered narrative poem “The Minstrel
Boy” to the free association of Kristi Merriweather’s contemporary “It Was
His Movin’ Hands” and “Be Tellin’ Me,” these Deaf poets display mastery of
all forms prevalent during their lifetimes. Beyond that, E. Lynn
Jacobowitz’s “In Memoriam: Stephen Michael Ryan” exemplifies a form unique
to Deaf American poets, the transliteration of verse originally created in
American Sign Language.
This definitive anthology showcases for the first time the best work of Deaf
poets throughout the nation’s history — John R. Burnet, Laura C. Redden,
George M. Teegarden, Agatha Tiegel Hanson, Loy E. Golladay, Robert F.
Panara, Mervin D. Garretson, Clayton Valli, Willy Conley, Raymond Luczak,
Christopher Jon Heuer, Pamela Wright-Meinhardt, and many others. Each of
their poems reflects the sensibilities of their times, and the progression
of their work marks the changes that deaf Americans have witnessed through
the years. In “The Mute’s Lament,” John Carlin mourns the wonderful things
that he cannot hear, and looks forward to heaven where “replete with purest
joys / My ears shall be unsealed, and I shall hear.” In sharp contrast, Mary
Toles Peet, who benefitted from being taught by Deaf teachers, wrote
“Thoughts on Music” with an entirely different attitude. She concludes her
account of the purported beauty of music with the realization that “the
music of my inward ear / Brings joy far more intense.”
Clark, a well-respected poet and contributor to the volume from St. Paul,
MN, tracks these subtle shifts in awareness through telling, brief
biographies of each poet. By doing so, he reveals in Deaf American Poetry
how “the work of Deaf poets serves as a prism through which Deaf people can
know themselves better and through which the rest of the world can see life
in a new light.”
Deaf American Poetry
An Anthology
John Lee Clark, Editor
ISBN 1-56368-413-6, 978-1-56368-413-5, 6 x 9 paperback, 280 pages,
footnotes, references, index, $35.00
To order books, call 1-888-630-9347, FAX 1-800-621-8476
Or visit gupress.gallaudet.edu
