The Cleveland Museum of Art
A Visual Meditation on Natural Gestures
English translation of American Sign Language on Film
The “O” from Okay rises with the sun
Waves roll over the beach under my ocean hands
Without wind I sway with waving wild sea oats
No clay in hand, I build a brick wall
From a sidewalk impression I take out a shivering leaf
In an outdoor fireplace my fingers add flame to wood
At a park bench, a sandwich materializes between my fingers
Under the Thomas Viaduct bridge I watch my body cross over the river
My arms propel a freight train past a windmill
The Galveston ferry sails across the bay to Port Bolivar
The pounding surf of Tangier Sound creates foam at my feet
I mimic a parasail crossing the skies of Quintana Roo
Then land on a beach of Cancun with a Smiley Face parachute
When an iguana on a log raises its head up and down I reply with a nod
Palm trees sway breathing wind through my hair
Closing a gap in the yard I add more pickets to a fence
My flag joins a chorus of flapping American ones honoring Memorial Day
The “O” of the sun sets over White Sands behind San Andres Peak
Willy Conley’s books include Photographic Memories, Plays of Our Own, Visual-Gestural Communication, The World of White Water, Listening Through the Bone, The Deaf Heart, Vignettes of the Deaf Character and Other Plays, and Broken Spokes. Born profoundly deaf, Conley is a retired professor emeritus/chairperson of theatre at Gallaudet University in D.C.