'Speak up - no need to shout -I'm not THAT deaf! ' <br />- do I have real reason to complain, <br />if years of partial listening have brought <br />now partial hearing in their fateful train? <br /> <br />O Milton - isn't it curious: the blind <br />evoke our instant feelings of compassion - <br />while deafness calls some idiot state to mind, <br />evoking, far from pity - irritation? <br /> <br />Those saintly mystics would just praise their God <br />that He, to speed their simple saintliness, <br />brings outer deafness so that inner Word <br />in cloistered silence, bring a greater bliss... <br /> <br />So may I bear affliction in good part <br />and hope to hear the louder in the heart.<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/on-his-deafness/
