Beyond Silence - Poem

   Deafness is soundless sight
   Music frozen in paper
   Air with no sound
   Rhythm with no beat
   Rushing bodies in the street
   Bumps of surprise
   A tap of disruption.

   Mouth and lips move against the
   Glass of isolation
   Words emerge: Life's stream of bubbles
   Crystal spheres, hollow of meaning,
   Break and ripple at the surface of reason,
   While silent, on the sandy floor,
   Deafness sways in mute incomprehension.

   Invisible to most
   Embarrassing to some
   Deafness hides from the social stare
   Huddled in ghettos from the listening ear.
   Talents wither in the soundless air;
   Each hope blooms and dies in dumb despair.

   What once seemed only a Quixotic joust
   To turn the Public Ear
   And see the Deaf as fellow men
   --One Deaf man tried for forty years
   to show the world the Deaf belong.
   As humans do, in the Grand Hall of all creation.

   No more must the deaf man
   Stand outside, on tiptoes,
   To see life's grand commotion
   But step up to the dance of life
   And sing the song of strong emotion.

   My Father within his own
   Soundless world and intense frustration,
   Smashed the locks on a million
   Cells of desolation.
   He set free, by single purpose
   And tenacity of mind
   The human force locked up in
   A silent scream:
   He leaves the deaf
   Not wishing
   But living
   The impossible dream.

John David Willams August 6, 19833

COPYRIGHT 1999 U.S. Rehabilitation Services Administration
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group