My Body Exists in Another Language • by Dominik Parisien 1

Hamilton Arts & Letters   PLAY AUDIO VERSION: voice of Dominik Parisien   I was thinking about disability poetics when my head started to spin. Nothing unusual there, really. Dizziness is a frequent companion of my chronic pain—we are old friends. As for poetry, I was working on my collection of poems exploring bodies, disability, and pain. With the manuscript, I was looking at ways poetry can be used to interrogate narratives around bodies, to reshape the language of pain. It seemed only appropriate that my body should enact the things I aim to transform in my work. Life and art, art and life, blurring together. When my hands started to shake I reached for the pills in my drawer. Pulled one out, swallowed it down with a mouthful of water. Tried not to move. I ran through some of my lines in my head to refocus my attention.  [  >>>>>  FORWARD ]   + [Distillate © HA&L + Dominik Parisien {from the Greek bios} -- the course of a life.]