[CT-NFB] Not blind enough

[setorow at optonline.net]

How wonderful the poem is to all of us who are blind or low visioned. 
 
Eileen Torow NFB member.
 
------ Original Message ------
From: ct-nfb at nfbnet.org
To: ct-nfb at nfbnet.org Cc: deb.reed57 at gmail.com
Sent: Monday, June 9th 2025, 08:05 AM
Subject: [CT-NFB] Not blind enough
 
Happy Monday!
Recently, one of our affiliate members, Allison Arbuckle, shared this 
poem with me. It is an experience that many of us with residual site in 
our journey of blindness have experienced. Here is the poem she shared:
 
 

 From Dave Steel, The Blind Poet
 
“Have you ever felt not blind enough?
Been told that you don’t look blind?
As if the cane you hold’s a prop,
or truth is something they define.
 
They see the way you turn your head,
how sometimes you still meet a gaze,
and question all the silent wars
you fight inside the dimming haze.
 
“Your eyes are clear, you’re looking straight,
you smiled before you took your seat—
you joked, you laughed, you found your way…
So blindness? That can’t be complete.”
 
But they don’t see the constant strain,
the way you memorize each space,
how shadows steal the world you knew,
how fog and fear have blurred each face.
 
They never feel the stumbles made,
the silent prayers with every street,
the noise that swells without a frame,
the panic dancing in your feet.
 
They only see the parts that pass
for something they define as “sight,”
not knowing how it shifts and fades
from morning glow to black of night.
 
And so you’re caught between two truths—
not fully seen, not fully gone—
you wear your courage quietly
while strangers tell you to “stay strong.”
 
But strength is found in every step
where darkness walks beside your day,
in every time you hold that cane
though pride or doubt gets in the way.
 
So if you’ve heard, “You don’t look blind,”
or felt like you don’t quite belong,
know that your truth is yours alone,
and living it is being strong.
 
You don’t owe proof to anyone—
your story’s written in your stride.
There’s more to vision than the eyes,
and more to blindness than what’s spied.
#TheBlindPoet” 
 

Sincerely,
 
Deb Reed
 
Central CT Chapter President of the National Federation of the Blind
Deb.reed57 at gmail.com
Cell-860-378-5370
 
“Bloom where you are. “From mother, Theresa of Calcutta.
 

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