Poetry: Aspect of Deaf Culture

If asked What is culture? what would be your response?

Culture in general is defined as "the patterns, traits, products, attitudes and intellectual/artistic activity associated with a population" 

Deaf people have their own unique culture and can be considered to be a sub-culture of the wider society. Deaf people create plays, write books and poetry, produce movies, artwork and magazines that target both deaf and hearing audiences. Deaf culture is constantly growing and evolving.

I'm concentrating on deaf poetry for this post. Poetry is an art that allows an emotional outlet for feelings and experiences. Deaf people use poetry as one of the more popular mediums to express feelings about hearing loss and deafness. Poems by deaf people are available in Sign language and in written words, deaf poetry has been collected in books and published.

I read this poem by Willard Madsen which "You have to be deaf to understand" it was written in 1971 and is considered to be a classic but is still relevant today especially in Trinidad where people tend to be insensitive and laugh, mock and ridicule anyone who does not fit into what society considers to be the norm.

I hope reading it gives you a better insight into how deaf people feel. I'm putting in the first 3 stanza's and I hope you'll use the link to read the rest.

 What is it like to "hear" a hand?

  You have to be deaf to understand.

  What is it like to be a small child,

  In a school, in a room void of sound --

  With a teacher who talks and talks and talks;
And then when she does come around to you,

  You have to be deaf to understand.
She expects you to know what she's said?


  You must first learn how to talk with your voice;
Or the teacher thinks that to make you smart,
  So mumbo-jumbo with hands on your face

  You have to be deaf to understand.
For hours and hours without patience or end,
  Until out comes a faint resembling sound?

  What is it like to be curious,

  And you ask a brother, sister, or friend
To thirst for knowledge you can call your own,
  With an inner desire that's set on fire --
  Who looks in answer and says, "Never Mind"?

  You have to be deaf to understand.