From The Poetry Foundation:
Poet Ilya Kaminsky was born in the former Soviet Union city of Odessa. He lost most of his hearing at the age of four after a doctor misdiagnosed mumps as a cold, and his family was granted political asylum by the United States in 1993, settling in Rochester, New York. After his father’s death in 1994, Kaminsky began to write poems in English. He explained in an interview with the Adirondack Review, “I chose English because no one in my family or friends knew it—no one I spoke to could read what I wrote. I myself did not know the language. It was a parallel reality, an insanely beautiful freedom. It still is.”
Incredible.
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DeleteSilence is solid. tb
DeleteJust this a.m. I was thinking about parallel universes. How one can be assured not to meet the self due to parallel. But also those who one might wish to, since we are a confabulation of all we meet (including things). Then realized, what absurd thinking. But have often realized absurd thinking can be a door to something not so absurd, except to those whose hearing is perfect. Something ala unheard melodies, without meaning to sound presumptuous.
I like what you said, the subtlety of it.
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