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Blindfold
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Blindfold

By John Mikhail Asfour
Literature & Poetry
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9780773586307

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A moving collection of poems on the distance surrounding disability.


Blinded by a grenade in Lebanon as a teenager, poet John Asfour came to Canada armed with James Joyce's words, "For the eyes, they bring us nothing. I have a hundred worlds to create and I am only losing one of them." Blindfold investigates the ways in which disability influences our lives and is magnified in our minds. In a series of thematically linked poems, Asfour draws the metaphor of the blindfold across the eyes of sighted citizens who are impaired by estrangement, emotional complexity, and social pressures.

A sense of exile and belonging dominates the poems, following the journey of a blind man whose life in his new land has been hampered by prejudice and barriers to communication. Exposing the rich and surprising possibilities of a life that has undergone a frightening transformation, Blindfold relates feelings of loss, displacement, and disorientation experienced not only by the disabled but by everyone who finds themselves separated from the norm.

Silver Threads

He recalls
the absence of sound, the impossible silence
the disappearance of light.

He is only aware of
the movement of his
mother's hand inside
her purse, looking

for her handkerchief.
He recalls her
warning not to play
with unknown objects
the type that explode on impact. Later,

he lies in the dark remembering
how she pointed out
the silver threads of the morning light
just the day before
and he sparkles
with guilt.
Details

Part of the Hugh MacLennan Poetry Series (number 22 in series)

106 Pages, 5 x 7.5

ISBN 9780773538474

March 2011

Formats: Paperback, eBook

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"Asfour provides readers with a deeply moving glimpse into the frustrations and disorientation of physical loss, as well as the heroic effort to find the language and metaphors that will translate his experience into poetry." Harold Heft, The Montreal Gazette
John Mikhail Asfour is a translator and former professor of literature. The editor of the landmark anthology When the Words Burn: An Anthology of Modern Arabic Poetry, he has written four previous books of poems.
Table of Contents

A Different World 3
Mediterranean Eyes 6
The Blind Shepherd 11
Call to Mind 13
Admitting the Light 15
Telling Her Stories 18
The Straw Chair 20
Uncle 22
Silver Threads 23
Wings 24
December 25th 25
The Intruder 26
A Sunday in June 28
Blindfold 29
The Cutting Edge 31
Surgery 33
Ultimate 35
Anticipation 36
A Shot in the Paper 38
Reflections 39
Booting the PC 45
Confined Kisses 47
Did Not Own Up 49
Beyond Belief 50
In the Metro 52
The Interview 55
The Curtain’s Down 57
Division of Labour 61
Etched on the Mind 64
Falling-Out 65
Black Hole 67
Eggs 71
Morning Coffee 74
Oblivious 76
At Fifty-Five 78
Passing Desires 80
Repudiation 82
Second Hand Love 84
Short of History 87
Waiting 89
Casual Hand Shake 90
We Only Meet in a Poem Now 93

Acknowledgments 97
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Selected entry
AAUP Book and Jacket Show
Association of American University Presses (2012)
Finalist
ReLit Award
(2012)
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