Ken Smith
Speaking to the Deaf
All questions need not have answers,
nor empty spaces filler.
A vacuum taunts imagination,
invites endless fantasy, words
rush in willy nilly, verbal cork
running in too much excitement,
always ahead of mind, too fast
for speech but mumbling suits,
an incomprehensible language
clear if only a key were available
like listening to ill mentally on
the very edge of unconscious
feet dangling, children at play
in mud that will not dry washing
in cold water one choice,
dizzy without question
without question dizzy
in another unfamiliar place
terrified without silence
within unabating confusion
saying and saying and saying
braying, wiggling hairy ears
spitting through front teeth
does not help the pushing
words flying about to speak,
always about to speak or
scream forever alone.
Page(s) 95
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The