The Summer I Couldn’t Read
(listen to the poem, read by Diane R. Wiener)
usually reading is
a waterfall of words
a river of knowledge
now wavy words
blocks of incomprehension
my eyes see
but my mind does not decipher
pretty words
no meaning
no adherence
no understanding
frightening to be
without words
the fountain that quenches
my brain thirst
those are all the words I had
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About the Author
Diane Driedger is a poet, artist, and scholar. She has been active in the disability rights movement for many years. Diane’s latest poetry collection is Red with Living: Poems and Art (Inanna, 2016). She teaches Disability Studies at the University of Manitoba, in Winnipeg, Canada.