Sonnet: On His Deafness
‘Speak up! No need to shout – I’m not t h a t deaf..! ’
-do I have any real right to complain
if years of partial listening have brought
now partial hearing in their fateful train?
O Milton – isn’t it curious: the blind
evoke our instant feelings of compassion;
while deafness calls some idiot state to mind –
evoking, far from pity – irritation!
Those saintly mystics would just praise their God
that He, to speed their simple saintliness,
brings outer deafness, so that inner Word
in cloistered silence brings a greater bliss..
So may I bear affliction in good part:
and hear a greater, louder word in heart.
poem by Michael Shepherd
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Related quotes
On His Deafness
'Speak up - no need to shout -I'm not THAT deaf! '
- do I have real reason to complain,
if years of partial listening have brought
now partial hearing in their fateful train?
O Milton - isn't it curious: the blind
evoke our instant feelings of compassion -
while deafness calls some idiot state to mind,
evoking, far from pity - irritation?
Those saintly mystics would just praise their God
that He, to speed their simple saintliness,
brings outer deafness so that inner Word
in cloistered silence, bring a greater bliss...
So may I bear affliction in good part
and hope to hear the louder in the heart.
poem by Michael Shepherd
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Speak The Word
Unsettled hearts
Promise what they cant deliver
Bring me the wine
And the cold night air to clear my head
Gray matter memory house
Master of this trembling flesh
Steady still my doubts
Let me speak the word that precedes bliss
Let me speak the word
Let me speak the word
Love love love love love love love love
Let me speak the word
Let me speak the word
Love love love love love love love love
Let me speak the word
Let me speak the word
Let me speak the word
Let me speak the word
These weakened knees
Have not touched ground or pew in ages
I havent bowed my head
I offer thanks to any God or to ask for favors
But watch me now
Im falling down
Praying
To speak the word that precedes bliss
To speak the word
To speak the word
Love love love love love love love love
Let me speak the word
Let me speak the word
Love love love love love love love love
Let me speak the word
Let me speak the word
Let me speak the word
Let me speak the word
song performed by by Tracy Chapman
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Hearing he hears not. He is deaf to entreaty. [Aliter., To feign deafness.]
Variations on the Word Love
This is a word we use to plug
holes with. It's the right size for those warm
blanks in speech, for those red heart-
shaped vacancies on the page that look nothing
like real hearts. Add lace
and you can sell
it. We insert it also in the one empty
space on the printed form
that comes with no instructions. There are whole
magazines with not much in them
but the word love, you can
rub it all over your body and you
can cook with it too. How do we know
it isn't what goes on at the cool
debaucheries of slugs under damp
pieces of cardboard? As for the weed-
seedlings nosing their tough snouts up
among the lettuces, they shout it.
Love! Love! sing the soldiers, raising
their glittering knives in salute.
Then there's the two
of us. This word
is far too short for us, it has only
four letters, too sparse
to fill those deep bare
vacuums between the stars
that press on us with their deafness.
It's not love we don't wish
to fall into, but that fear.
this word is not enough but it will
have to do. It's a single
vowel in this metallic
silence, a mouth that says
O again and again in wonder
and pain, a breath, a finger
grip on a cliffside. You can
hold on or let go.
poem by Margaret Atwood
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Deaf Sentences
Deaf sentences cause the refrain,
“There’s failure to communicate, ”
which people who’ve been checked complain
when stymied by a dumb stalemate.
We ought to wonder who’s the cause
of silence in this failure? We
should, when we sense the silence, pause
and ask ourselves if it could be
the problems of our failure to
communicate. We often see,
but do not hear, when we pursue
our own agendas, sentencing
ourselves and those whom we ignore
with deafness, carrying a sting
that’s worse than wasps, and hurts much more.
Inspired by Michiko Kakutani’s review of “Deaf Sentences” by David Lodge (“Hearing and Dreams Both Fading, ” NYT, October 10,2008) :
The title of David Lodge’s latest novel, “Deaf Sentence, ” is, of course, a play on words, and there are many others scattered throughout these pages: “Deaf and the maiden, ” “Deaf Row, ” “I had not thought deaf had undone so many.” And for Mr. Lodge’s sad-sack,60-something narrator, Desmond Bates, who is losing his hearing, deafness is a kind of death — a symptom of mortality, a constant, embarrassing reminder of his aging body and diminishing hopes. After a couple of lackluster novels, Mr. Lodge is back to form: if “Deaf Sentence” lacks the uproarious academic satire found in “Changing Places” and “Small World, ” it nonetheless showcases the author’s ability to use sympathy and slapstick humor to create an appealingly hapless hero and to recount his adventures with Waugh-like verve. The humor is more muted here, not least because his hero is grappling with sobering matters like an ailing parent, a stale marriage and the frustrations and disappointments of advancing age, instead of the sort of career woes and sexual misalliances faced by Mr. Lodge’s earlier heroes. Indeed the novel occupies a similar place in Mr. Lodge’s career as “Exit, Ghost” does in Philip Roth’s, and “Villages” does in John Updike’s: the book is a veteran novelist’s meditation on aging and death and the diminution of youthful dreams.
10/10/08
poem by Gershon Hepner
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But people who think they can project themselves into deafness are mistaken because you can't. And I'm not talking about imagining what a deaf person's whole life is like I even mean just realizing what it is like for an instant.
quote by Richard Masur
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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True Joy Everlasting
Spelling out the word joy reveals,
A truth of how hurts turn to heals.
Let’s not self centered fret and pout,
Just follow commandment laid out.
“J” first and foremost, the beginning,
Just as Jesus is without any ending.
First in all we think or what is done,
One for all and truly all for the One.
“O” second in importance we see,
Putting others before me has to be.
Serving one another brings gladness,
Replacing worldly accrued sadness.
“Y” we see the very last of the three,
Last you must be to start eternal glee.
Selfishness brings heartache and pain,
But this path leads to Kingdom’s gain.
In great simplicity Wisdom cries out,
Yet there remains deafness all about.
Here joy has been spelled out for you,
Now you may receive or bid it adieu!
poem by Joseph Blitch
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Letters
Every day brings a ship,
Every ship brings a word;
Well for those who have no fear,
Looking seaward well assured
That the word the vessel brings
Is the word they wish to hear.
poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Are You Listening
Are you listening to my words
When I say them
Do you hear me when I need you most
Sometimes I feel like you not listening
Are you deaf?
Am i not speaking clear?
If I clear my throat and speak louder
Are you listening to me
Do you hear the words from my mouth
Is my voice to low?
Maybe if I speak louder maybe even scream it
Are you listening
poem by Raesheka Antwine
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Your Love Still Brings Me To My Knees
(cook / wood)
Your love still brings me to my knees
From day to day you feel my needs
This flame that burns
Within my heart will never die
Oh, i bless the day you came along
You turned my life into a song
There is no greater love
And there will never be
'cause you're the only one
(your love still brings me to my knees)
Still bring me to my knees
You're the one, you're the one i long to please, oh darling, ah, ha
(your love still brings me to my knees)
(your love is killing me)
Oh, i find each day i love you more
Always the one i'm waiting for
No matter where i go
No matter what i do
'cause you're the only one
(your love still brings me to my knees)
Still brings me to my knees
Ah, you're the one i long to please, oh darling, ooh, aah, ooh
(your love still brings me to my knees)
(your love is killing me)
Now i never knew
What love was all about, yeah
Then you came along
Gave me a reason to stand up and shout, oh i love you
Oh darling
Your love still brings me to my knees
From day to day you feel my needs
There is no greater love
And there will never be
'cause you're the only one
(your love still brings me to my knees)
Still brings me to my knees
(your love is killing me)
(you're the one, you're the one i long to please
Still brings me to my knees
(your love still brings me to my knees)
Yes it does, sweet baby, ooh, ah
Shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, yeah
Shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, yeah, yeah, yeah
Ooh
song performed by by Dusty Springfield
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Place Between
Where and how to find immortal soul;
or self; eternal witness; eye of God;
or place, or space, within the eager heart
where All, or One, may hide – or may await?
So where to find first clue; or some frayed end
of golden thread that leads to golden light?
Not in the wrinkled brow… but in the simplest things
the greatest secrets wait, as we are told;
in the magic land that’s called Between:
Between the end of one thought, and the next,
as it is formed within the mind – the briefest space
where nothing but the witness of our self
rests, perfect, pure, complete, within itself;
inviting us to join that rest for just as long
as we enjoy this satisfaction
of the presence of ourself;
And if that taste of presence pleases -
then, between each word we hear or speak,
we’ll find the silence of ourself; and find
how each word comes from silence, and returns;
and as we relish and besport in that great space,
from greater silence, greater words may come..
There is no limit to that world, Between:
we’ll find it more and more, within all things,
beyond all things; it is the music of our life
which sings its song through thought and speech and act;
a music in a boundless space, so vast
that we may meet our greater self – at last!
poem by Michael Shepherd
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Train Man
And over in the teacher's home she waited by the phone
For calls which never rang, and people who never sang
Train man rambled dusty into town and made his daily round
Train man and he comes in the night
brings her no love but he's right
Yes he's right
Through fog and misty morning dew, she'd seen his oily face
and he had touched her heart, taken it apart
Though he never stopped to speak a word his voice was all she heard
Train man and he comes in the night
brings her no love but he's right
Yes he's right
Little girl you're a pretty little girl
Won't you come with me a while
Little girl in your frilly little world
Won't you give me your sweet smile
(first solo)
If you come tonight bring someone
If you come tonight bring someone
Don't come alone
If you come alone don't come
Don't come
Don't come
(solo)
Yes i know he's right
Yes i know he's right
oh I know he's right
fade...
She held his hand and whispered soft
I love you train man
He just grumbled like engine as it rumbles
And said someday
Train man and he knows something's wrong and he's right
Oh yes he's right
song performed by by Bob Seger
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Only Voices I hear Are On The Inside
I was born not being able to hear
Born not hearing my mother tell me I'm dear
Born never listening to anyone who spoke to me
Born not enjoying music
Born without the ability to gauge sound, unable to hear the clock tick
But since the day I was born
Since before I could talk, I could scorn
There was one thing I always did hate
And that was the thing deepest inside of me,
The thing for which I cursed fate
Worse than deafness or being unable to see
Since the day I was born I heard voices
Not when loved ones talked, but voices that weren't my choice
To hear, voices that were inside my head
Voices that nobody else heard, but I didn't know if they were lying
Because my hearing has always been dead
I'd hear screeching or dying
When none was there
Those voices they'd tell me what to do and how could I deny them?
They were, they are, and they will be the only ones who care
Because they're the only one that speak to me, I can't find the sin
That I committed to be born like this, to be born broken
I've heard more conversations than any other man
And yet I've never heard man utter a word, through my whole lifespan
The only voices I hear are on the inside
And it's the greatest torment that I hide
They'll just tell me I'm crazy, well in writing
But these voices, they accept me, they sing
These voices they know because they've talked to me
These voices are the only I've ever known the
The first voices I've ever heard
Like a mother, I've never listened to a singing bird
But I've listened to a cacophonous symphony of arguing inside my head
These voices are like the woman I did not choose, but wed
I can't separate myself from them
The only time I hear anything, it's torment to condemn
Me, it's funny that I could never speak to anyone but myself
But I guess I've never, ever, been lonely... not ever.
I
Have
Never
Been
Alone
W ho could save me from myselves?
poem by David Knox
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Open Speech
Good friend of mine, you feel with me—
Your blood grows hot by sympathy
With something that I say or do;
Then speak—I want a word from you.
Let not the silence wrap you round
While you are living over-ground.
They say that earthly years are few;
Then speak—I want a word from you.
Perhaps I pass you in the street,
And when our eyes a moment meet,
I wonder are you wishing too;
Then speak—I want a word from you.
Are you, too, longing for a sign,
Yet fear to stretch a hand for mine?
What other am I writing to?
Then speak—I want a word from you.
Some way our thoughts together run,
Since both lift brow toward the sun
Beneath the self-same vault of blue;
Then speak—I want a word from you.
poem by John Le Gay Brereton
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Think you of the fact that a deaf person cannot hear. Then, what deafness may we not all possess? What senses do we lack that we cannot see and cannot hear another world all around us?
Frank Herbert in Dune
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Speak
Theyve given me a mission
I dont really know the game yet
Im bent on submission
Religion is to blame
Im the new messiah
Death angel with a gun
Dangerous in my silence
Deadly to my cause
Speak to me the pain you feel
Speak the word
The word is all of us
Ive given my life to become what I am
To preach the new beginning
To make you understand
To reach some point of order
Utopia in mind, youve got to learn
To sacrifice, to leave whats now behind
Speak to me the pain you feel
Speak the word
The word is all of us
Speak the word
The word is all of us
Seven years of power
The corporation claw
The rich control the government, the media the law
To make some kind of difference
Then everyone must know
Eradicate the fascists, revolution will grow
The system we learn says were equal under law
But the streets are reality, the weak and poor will fall
Lets tip the power balance and tear down their crown
Educate the masses, well burn the white house down
Speak to me the pain you feel
Speak to me the pain you feel
Speak the word [revolution]
The word is all of us
Speak the word [revolution]
The word is all of us
Speak the word
The word is all of us
Speak the word
The word is all of us
Speak!!!
song performed by by Queensryche
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Guilty Deafness
You look like you've got something to say
It must be bad if you've come all this way
But I don't wanna hear it I've got guilty deafness
I couldn't take all that from you
The last time you came here you left me breathless
I couldn't take much more of you
You look like you've found something thats big
The kind that the papers would lose on what they'd bid
But they don't wanna hear it they've got guilty deafness
They wouldn't take all that from you
The last time you paid them you made them restless
They couldn't take no not from you
I've got her on one side
song performed by by China Drum from Self Mage Maniac
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Bible Stories: Job (Chapter XXXII)
To answer Job, the three men ceased;
Their arguments hadn’t Job appeased;
Kindled was Elihu’s anger;
Job’s views had gone a bit stranger.
Job staunchly said that he was right;
He proved it all in his own light;
Could man be right and God be wrong?
Yet, conclude one must any song!
The three had not convinced Job well;
‘Wrong was his stance, ’ they could not tell;
The three were older but got tamed;
Elihu’s wrath became inflamed.
The son of Barachel then said,
‘I’m young and you are an old head;
And so, I was afraid to speak
And share my views, with you, all meek;
Your years should have taught you wisdom;
But God has given you freedom;
The breath of God (man’s spirit) gives
Understanding, by which he lives.
’Tis not that days can make one wise;
’Tis not that man is free of vice;
Nor aged understand what’s right;
So, heed to what I say: See light!
I heard your arguments so far,
And conclusion of your word-war;
I followed all who spoke with care;
To convince Job, no one did dare!
None could refute what Job had said;
Don’t say we’ve met a wisdom-head;
Had he addressed his words to me,
I would have spoken differently
Now that you’ve spoken for your part,
I wish to open up my heart;
I want to speak a lot of things,
So, let me say what my heart brings!
My spirit compels from within,
Like pressure from anew wineskin;
I’m on verge of bursting out,
Let me hence speak and clear your doubt.
I won’t be partial to someone,
And neither will I flatter one;
And if I did, I know my God
Will take my life away by rod!
poem by John Celes
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Untitled 6
I am so lonely,
I am so sad,
Speak one word only
To make my heart glad,
Pass not in silence,
For silence is scorn,
I am so wretched,
Unloved, and forlorn.
In darkness sorrow
I think through the night
That each coming morrow
Brings thee to my sight
As a star sent to brighten
My gloom with a beam;
And I fall asleep ever
With these for a dream.
I know it is madness
Thus fondly for me
To cheat my life's sadness
With dreaming of thee.
Our paths through life's journey
Run widely apart,
And thou can'st be only
A dream in my heart.
Then speak in thy kindness
One word to my woe,
Its music shall haunt me
Through life as I go.
I am so lonely,
I am so sad,
One kind word only
To make my heart glad.
poem by Owen Suffolk
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G*d Unnamed
So many are reluctant, in their speech,
to make referral to the name of God;
as if to speak thus is to overreach
what may by human mind be understood.
Yet is it not the given power of mind
to do this very thing, and boldly seek
always the greater picture, there to find
the greater causes, and of them to speak?
Our consciousness is greater than the Sun;
it shines beyond the shadows of the mind;
in universal thoughts that look to One
a richer life this greater love may find.
Thus unnamed unity may head our quest;
for Goodness, Truth and Beauty there still rest..
poem by Michael Shepherd
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