- So I've just got one more.
I want to thank all of you again for listening.
And thanks to Jos for being here to read with me.
This last one is one of the poems
that I wrote during this residency, which
I am very grateful for.
It's the first poem I've ever written about my hearing loss.
And to elaborate, I have a particular type
of hearing loss called middle frequency hearing loss.
So I can hear very low pitched sounds
and I can hear very high pitched sounds,
but I have trouble hearing the sounds in the middle.
And the human voice is a middle frequency sound.
This is called "Elegy for the Frequencies Heard and Unheard."
Thanks again.
I've been pollinated by silence since I was a child.
My insulated dawdling uninterrupted
save a perch sparrow's whistle, or the thrashing of a lemon
in the garbage disposal.
The doctor said the human voice, light rain,
unwrapping a gift, the sound of the paper tearing,
every dream I've ever had is humming,
humming that even as it swells its pitch disappears.
Each night, bees wring patient drops of honey
into the combs of my ears.
Someday soon I'll no longer hear anything but this sweetness.
Thanks.