The Aphasia Poems
by Donora Hillard
In this brief poem-sequence, Hillard probes the relationship between poetic fragmentation and the way linguistic disability can fracture the language of contemporary living. In adapting, with permission, the slippages found in her work as a mentor to those with linguistic disabilities Hillard discovers a continuity where one would instead assume a decay. When proper use of language and syntax are considered requirements to deliver meaning, we ignore the vast continuum of communication that the non-normative use of language can present.
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About the Author
In addition to The Aphasia Poems, Donora Hillard is the author of
Covenant (Gold Wake Press, 2012) and other collections of poetry and
hybrid text. Her work appears in Hint Fiction (W.W. Norton & Company),
Monkeybicycle, Pedagogy, Women in Clothes (Penguin), and elsewhere.
The projects she has been involved in have been featured by CNN,
Lybba, MSNBC, and the Poetry Foundation. She teaches medical
humanities in Ohio, where she lives with her fiancé.
She tweets at @donora_ann
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