I'm a blind poet, musician, and English instructor, living in Jacksonville, FL. I enjoy reading, writing, gardening, singing, and cooking. When I'm not involved in academic pursuits, I work with blind and visually-impaired people and their families, teaching self-advocacy and independent living skills. I advocate with humor and compassion.
When you carry a white cane, a very visible marker of disability, you receive a lot of free information about other people’s lives, especially their medical history. Whether you believe that the white cane signifies impairment or independence, its presence is hard to ignore. Sometimes, it elicits a troublesome graveyard silence from onlookers – which … More Disclosure and Fascination
At Anneke’s party, my new friend Marilyn and I have found two fortuitous seats on the sofa. Just a few inches in front of us, the coffee table bravely bears the weight of several platters of hors d’oeuvres – an intense cheese plate piled high with my favorite cranberry-studded Stilton, chips and guacamole, a bowl … More The Great Lettuce Deception…And Other Embarrassing Moments with Food
She has appeared in previous blogs, wielding a bottle of Puffy Paint and wearing a determined expression. She has uttered such maxims as, “A clean house is a sign of a boring woman” and “Disappointment builds character.” She has encouraged me to try everything from sewing on buttons and making lemon meringue pie to painting … More Empowerment
Hello. My name is Emily and I will be your blind date for this evening. Don’t be alarmed. As I’m sure you could intuit from our previous conversations, I’m not a blind date in the traditional sense, and this venture we’re about to embark on isn’t what the sitcoms or glamor magazines would call a … More Blind Date
Some years ago, I heard about the trend in “blind cafés,” places where customers pay for the experience of dining in the dark. Usually staffed with only blind employees, this lightless, sightless eating experience is supposed to a) simulate what blindness must be like, and b) generate empathy, understanding, and other feelings of goodwill and … More Revamping the Blind Cafe
At 6:45 on Tuesday night, Sherry and I enter the rehearsal space. We are among the first to arrive. We thread our way through the round tables toward the front of the room and deposit our bags. Internally, I’m bouncing with excitement. After six long years of absence, I finally get to sing with these … More In the Care of a Chorus
It’s a big day. Graduation. The sky is blue, the geese are honking, and the sun is shining — almost entirely on me, I think, because I can feel its heat, intensified by my black robes. They work as effective solar panels as Adrianna, my good friend and long-time sighted guide, and I walk toward … More Commencement: Sometimes a cane takes you places beyond your imagining.
It is a beautiful day to be outside. With bright sunlight throwing the path before me into high contrast and a cool breeze threatening to yank the cane out of my hand as I walk, it’s the kind of day I revel in, a day where my concentration is wrenched from cautious mobility by a … More Accidental Affability
If you were to ask my mother to name one of the happiest days of her life so far, she might tell you, “The day I got married,” “The day my son got married,” or maybe, “The day my daughter got married.” (In my fantasies, she smiles brightly, dabs at her eyes, and replies, “The … More Clean Up Your Act: Household Chores and Low Vision
Dance lessons always begin the same way. I enter the room, walking confidently with my cane and possibly holding the arm of a girlfriend, and we laughingly find our way to a chair or bench, depending on the room’s amenities. We take off our everyday shoes and strap ourselves into Dancing Shoes – high heels … More On the Floor: Blindness & Ballroom Dancing
Springtime. Adorable baby chicks. Pastel colors everywhere. The punchy smell of vinegar as Mom prepares the colors for dying eggs. A line of little coffee cups hold the little colored tabs fizzing away. I claim the red one. And the purple. A beribboned Easter dress in shades of pastel pink or lavender, maybe even yellow. … More Happy Easter, Boys and Girls!
I stand up, swinging the heavy bag over one shoulder, unfolding the six sections of the cane with their hearty, reassuring clicks. Mobility is a mess of sensations. “Can you make it?” — it’s the question on others’ lips, but they’re whispering compared to the voice in my head. “Can you make it?” Don’t be … More Three Turns
A few years ago, my brother and I were doing a bit of grocery shopping, and, as we wandered through the produce section, he abruptly stopped the cart. Trying to suppress a mischievous laugh, he reached for something on a shelf and said, grinning, “Feel this!” When he put it into my hand, I immediately … More “How does it feel?”: Exploring touch and texture
After I graduate, I want to audition for a group that brings musicians and artists to hospitals, nursing homes, hospices, and similar facilities. The idea of singing as healing has always appealed to me, much more so than the thought of performing. I don’t feel the urge to be the center of attention onstage where … More The curing hymn
Some days I feel like a substandard ecopoet. I have only walked the UNF Nature Trails twice in my six years’ experience on this campus. Yet each time has brought forth the same conclusions, thoughts that have been steeping awhile and now must be given a voice. The first occasion, according to the dark green … More Impossible autonomy
On the Blink 