Stop Idle words

Happy Fall! I hope you greeted the changing season with as much enthusiasm as I did. Today, I start a new quarter of teaching at my local college. After 18 years (gasp! really?) I'm still excited about the first day of schooooool. Here's why, firstly, my students are shining rays of hope, eager to learn (education is one of the greatest blessings of a free world, in my humble opinion). Secondly, the skill they wish to learn is American Sign Language, and I have the great honor of teaching it. The class is taught voice-off and over the years, the feedback has been that ASL is one of the most fun and peaceful classes students have ever taken. This poem attempts to express the precious gift of American Sign Language:

Stop idle words

©2013 Karla Johnston, www.InnerConstellation.com

Living in a world communicating 
from the neck up:

lips, tongue, palate, teeth:

enunciating,

articulating,
pronouncing.

Vocal chords stretch, pull
sometimes lovingly

sometimes deafeningly...

ahhhhh.

Living, breathing, communicating

full-bodied:
fluid arc of hand lightly touches crown, 

drops down.
5 components of a sign: 
handshape,
location,

palm orientation,
movement,
and my favorite—
non-manual expression.

What?!

Language requiring the hand
yet expressing non-manually?
Holistically: 
body, mind and heart just a humming, 

but you can’t hear it, 
not from the neck up, that is.
Drop down,
follow my hand—
top of head to soles of feet,
simply listen.