Living in a Noiseless World: A Deaf Poetry Book Shares What it’s Like to Be Deaf

 

It’s hard to write about a disability unless you have experienced that disability yourself. And while I don’t like the word “disabled” or “disability,” the fact is that deafness is a disability and being deaf makes a person disabled. That is the label which society has given to anyone who can’t hear, walk, see or speak. “Disabled.” And while I grudgingly accept this designation as I have navigated through almost forty years of living with deafness, I have not allowed that term to define me, or the life that I choose to live.

 

I have included Deaf characters in my fiction. I have written articles about deafness and on topics relevant to the Deaf community. I have also written essays about being deaf. Some of those things were published. I have written poems about being deaf, and so far, only a couple of those poems have been published.

 

Now people will have the opportunity to read many more of those kinds of poems, because at long last, after many years, my collection of deaf poetry has been published.

 

Noiseless is a collection of poems about deafness written by a deaf poet. These poems shed light on what it’s like to be deaf, as well as issues affecting the Deaf community. These poems also offer insights on relevant topics and reminders of the need to do away with ableist attitudes and ableist language in society. Ultimately, the poems in this book reflect a strong desire shared in the Deaf community: That we only want to belong and be a part of everything that our hearing peers get to be a part of. (And including sign language interpreters at important televised and public events sends the message that Deaf people are being included.)

 

I started writing poems for this book many years ago – I can remember asking someone for feedback on some of the poems in 2017. When I felt the manuscript was ready to submit, I sent it out – the publishers as well as contests which were held by publishing companies. None of them accepted the manuscript, even the ones which published books relevant to the disability community.

 

While these rejections poured in, I took the manuscript through another round of revisions. While working on these revisions, I stayed up to date on news and issues which impacted the Deaf community. Some of these news items I read inspired poems that ended up in the final draft of the manuscript that was eventually published.

 

At the same time, many of my own experiences as a Deaf person inspired many of the poems in this book. How I was moved to the back of a church because my ASL interpreter was too much of a “distraction” for those in attendance. How a hearing person would refuse to write things down for me when she spoke then got upset when I couldn’t understand what she was saying. And of course, the many times people have screamed into my ear after they were informed that I am deaf, as though talking louder would allow me to magically hear them. (There is a difference between deafness and hard-of-hearing.)

 

These are just some of the aspects of living with deafness which these poems explore. While the poems in Noiseless are not meant to capture what it’s like to be deaf for everyone (because not everybody who is deaf is able to speak, like I can, and everybody lives with their disability differently), I do hope that some of these poems are relatable enough to Deaf readers that they will find it enjoyable.

 

Many thanks to Crystal Baynam at Baynam Books Press for accepting this book for publication, editing it, and for the cover design. I also wish to thank everyone for all of their support for this book.

 

Noiseless is now available in ebook and print formats.

 

Here is the blurb:

 

Individuals living with deafness have existed for millennia, yet in today's world, we remain undervalued, misunderstood, discriminated against, stereotyped and underrepresented.

 

We constantly run into communication barriers, discrimination, ableism and misconceptions. For many of us in the Deaf community, we struggle with social isolation, finding it hard to fit in and be included in a world that prioritizes the ability to hear. The poems in “Noiseless” capture various aspects of what it's like to live with deafness.

 

These poems hope to show that deafness is not the tragedy which the hearing world claims it to be. Thanks to greater awareness of the Deaf community, Deaf culture, and Deaf-focused education, individuals who are deaf are at long last finally finding their place in the world, no matter what barriers remain.

 

We still have a long way to go, but together we can make society a more Deaf-friendly place to be.

 

And here is the link