The Perseverance
Page 4
‘Doctor Marigold Re-evaluated’: ‘Doctor Marigold’ is a short story written by Charles Dickens. This poem would not exist without Jennifer Esmail’s Reading Victorian Deafness and my BSL level 2 teacher, Debora who teaches for the BSL organisation in London, Remark!
‘The Shame of Mable Gardiner Hubbards’: Mable was profoundly deaf from five years old and married Graham Alexander Bell. Her name then changed to Mable Bell. Laurent Clerc, one of the first Deaf teachers at Gallaudet University, quotes her diary in his autobiography, in which she admits, ‘I hate the deaf and anyone who teaches them’.
‘Two Guns in the Sky for Daniel Harris’: Written after reading the CNN article, ‘After trooper kills deaf man, North Carolina family seeks answers’ in August 2016. The case was dropped in January 2017 and no one was charged.
‘Closure’: Thanks to the NHS paramedics, nurses and doctors at Homerton Hospital, who stitched me up and saved my life. This poem would not exist without them and Caroline Bird.
‘Maybe I Could Love a Man’: References my father’s ancestral land in Jamaica, Birch Hill and Patty Hill. Big love to cousin Dean, cousin Shaun, Uncle Barry, Alison and Hilary in Kingston.
‘What Samantha Said’: This sequence of seven poems exists thanks to a friend who wishes to be anonymous but who gave me the honour of sharing her story as a Deaf Jamaican woman who moved to London in the 1980s. The details of this story were gathered via face-to-face interviews using BSL and SSE (Sign Supported English). Samantha means “the one who hears”, “God Heard” and “Listener” in Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic and English.
‘Thinking Of Dad’s Dick’: This poem wouldn’t exist without Wayne Holloway Smith sharing his poem sequence with me. His poem ‘Dad’s Dick’ was originally published in The Poetry Review.
‘Dementia’: I cared for my father for two years while he was dying. Seriously, big up the carers of the world. Thanks also to the NHS nurses and to Halima; I couldn’t have pushed through without you.
‘Happy Birthday Moon’: A pantoum inspired by Frank Asch’s children’s picturebook of the same title.
A note on the spelling of D/deaf
Thoughout the book, these poems use variations of big D and little d D/deaf. Big D Deaf people are those who are born Deaf and tend to learn sign before spoken language is acquired and regard their deafness as part of their identity and culture rather than as a disability.
Small d deaf people are often those who become deaf in later life, after they have acquired a spoken language. Their relationship with deafness is more medical than cultural.
FURTHER READING
Magma 69 (The Deaf Issue) edited by Lisa Kelly & Raymond Antrobus (2017)
Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood by Paddy Ladd (2003)
Seeing Voices by Oliver Sacks (2012)
When The Mind Hears: A History Of The Deaf by Harlan Lane (1994)
This book includes a spotify soundtrack; search ‘The Perseverance’ or log on to raymondantrobus.com.
The BSL and ASL illustrations are by Oliver Barrett (floatinglimb.com).