Deaf Republic

I had the honor of meeting Ilya Kaminsky and hear him talk about his work. I appreciated the insight he shared because it helped me get a better understanding of his poems. I am not a poetry fan, but even I could appreciate the literary genius behind these words. Highly recommend. Very emotional.

say no evil. hear no evil. Ilya aptly details the deafening sounds of war, and the struggle to speak to deaf people. i really loved Momma Galya.
my favorite quote is: The deaf don't believe in silence. Silence is the invention of the hearing.

Beautiful. Devastating. Read it.

So many things to pull out of this collection, but I'll just say, impressive how much meaning can come from four hand-signs in succession.

Published 2019. I read it today, March 2022, knowing that Ukrainians were being murdered while I read... but I could not hear them. Knowing also that somewhere in the U.S. today a white cop is murdering a Black soul, and I won't hear that, either.

We can't escape war; our choice is in how we respond to it. Active resistance? Nonviolent resistance? Kaminsky demonstrates, bleakly, a third option, one we in the U.S. might find familiar.

This is such a fascinatingly constructed set of poems. Almost felt like a play. Highly recommended.