Because I moved(!) at the end of this month, my time for a new deep dive into the work of an unknown poet has been limited. But this diversion gives me a chance to introduce you to some poets that you still might've not run across, especially since their poems aren't meant to be spoken.
First, in a special portfolio over at West Branch mag, John Lee Clark, a Deafblind poet, has translated into English several poems by writers who communicate with American Sign Language (ASL) or protactile, a dialect of ASL that uses touch to communicate with others.
Clark notes in his introduction that “Protactile is spoken by using the receiver’s body as ‘contact space’ where speech occurs the most” and I think this sentence illustrates how the shared nature of this still nascent type of literature has radical possibilities. What can reading and translating poetic contact spaces do for our relationships to our bodies?
Second, The Listening World, a substack operated by Chris Martin, offers poems (and songs) by non-speaking autistic writers. These pieces are created through the help of Unrestricted Interest, “an organization dedicated to helping neurodivergent learners transform their lives through writing.” They offer up language composed from a neurodiverse place that, in my experience, often cleverly questions assumptions about the experience of consciousness via language. The poem “we are other together” by Amelia Bell is a sterling example.
Unfortunately, the kinds of poetries here haven't won too many contests, as far as I know. But if you should be of the sort who are inclined to run contests, probably doing work like Clark’s and Martin’s would better serve both marginalized communities like these as well as others. I hope to find many others like them.