Poetry in Sign Language
Poetry is a form of art in language, whether it is written, spoken or signed. Poetry uses various elements and devices, such as alliteration, rhythm, simile, metaphors, and onomatopoeia. Often poetry relies heavily on imagery and metaphors. In this sense, poetry and visual-manual (sign) language are somehow a natural complementarity. Merging them together is a magic of poesy in imagery.
"a splendid flash of concrete poetry" in ASL trace, Photospeaking and/or Photowriting series
by Jolanta Lapiak at www.i8media.com
ASL poetry and storytelling have been passed on "orally" from generation to generation. There had been no published works of ASL poetry till the advent of video technology in the 1970s. William Stokoe of Gallaudet University first published ASL linguistics in the 1960s. As linguistic research on ASL and video technology emerged, published ASL literature and art have been growing since then. Dr. Clayton Valli, the American forebear of ASL poetry, embarked his research on ASL poetry in the 1980s.
"Poetry Performance" in ASL trace, Photospeaking and/or Photowriting series
by Jolanta Lapiak, www.i8media.com
Traditionally, translating an ASL poem to English is discouraged or sometimes is not possible due to some nature of complex unity of the handshape, movement, spatial location, classifier and others. Generally, no interpreting can convey a signed poem fully. Sign-language poetry can be best appreciated by its first-hand experience. But, discussion and interpretation can do after listening to the poem first.
Additional related readings
Clark, John Lee. "Melodies Unheard: Deaf Poets and Their Subversion of the 'Sound' Theory of Poetry" Sign Language Studies Vol. 7 No. 1 Fall 2006. Pp 4-10.
H-Dirksen L. Bauman. "Redesigning Literature: Poetics of American Sign Language Poetry". http://www.ubu.com/ethno/discourses/bauman_asl.html
Sutton-Spence, Rachel. Analysing Sign Language Poetry. 2004.