In The World of White Water, Willy Conley is a capable, energetic, and sometimes humorous guide, inviting us to share in his experience of the Deaf and hearing worlds, showing us how these worlds co-exist and collide. Combining the powers of ASL and English, Conley navigates the swirling 'white water' of these poems using precise and striking images to share his thoughtful observations. You’ll want to read this book from cover to cover, and return often to savor your favorite discoveries.
Helen Frost, author of All He Knew
The deaf eye, to paraphrase the deaf poet David Wright describing his own work, typically makes eye music of language. In Conley's hands, however, the deaf eye captures nearly photographic imagery. The depiction of a deaf child riding his pedal car through a puzzling world of suburban household objects stops cold on an image of sidewalk snow melted by rock salt. Raucous boys filling a skateboard park with "leaping / testosterone" are caught as though in mid-leap by Conley's camera at the moment a little girl "rolls in nonchalantly / on a pink Razor scooter." Some of the verse collected here is rendered in American Sign Language mentalese that may surprise some readers, but much of it focuses, instead, on using the English language to take achingly beautiful stills.
Edna Sayers, editor of Outcasts and Angels: The New Anthology of Deaf Characters in Literature
This delightful collection of poems by Willy Conley—a deaf man who is also a poet, an actor, a teacher, and a father—offers up poignant insights with clarity and humor. The poems are a pleasure to read for their own sake, but for hearing people like myself, they also provide a window into the lived experience of a person with hearing loss, with all its frustrations and its compensations.
Alexa Selph, Poet and Poetry Instructor, Emory Continuing Education
