School for the Blind

"In his debut collection, School for the Blind, Daniel Simpson offers us a glimpse into the world of the blind with its attendant dangers, drop-offs, obstructions, cruelties and abandonments. Yet, here is also a world where kindnesses abound, where gestures of love by strangers and friends, alike, help to anchor the body and reconcile it to its place on earth. What is wholly surprising, as we read through the collection, is our confusion of who is blind and who is sighted. So many of the poems offer us an unusual sense of the world, a more intimate way of seeing it without the familiar visual signposts, a knowledge of it through heart and feel that the sighted can only imagine. 'Most people don't realize,' Simpson declares in one poem, 'that I'm listening to them breathe, / that I hear body language.' What a subtle and crucial way of being in tandem with others! This is what Daniel Simpson's poetry schools us to do, connecting us in invisible yet palpable ways to one another, through a second sight, a deeper measure." -- Gregory Djanikian, Director of the Creative Writing Program, University of Pennsylvania, and author of six poetry collections, most recent ly,