Bea Webster, Sandra Alland and Ania Urbanowska, UK.

Long Lost Lover

 

A yellow dawn breaks on the airport of my childhood

Thick air of spices and warmth and tenderness

Enters my nose and brings out a wave of nostalgia

And here I am, the home of my soul

Don Meuang embraced me like a long lost lover

 

Over the Temple of the Dawn the sun rises

Where a sea of saffron monks lines up to receive alms

Upon the old Venice of the East

Its ancient routes take me to my family

Bangkok embraced me like a long lost lover

 

Over the Chao Phraya River the sun shines on its muddy waters

With its Buddha head buried in the tree

From war in times long gone

When it was once showered in golden leaves

Ayutthaya embraced me like a long lost lover

 

Over the Gulf of Thailand the sea glitters

Hermit crabs make their homes in discarded plastics

Feasting on watermelons from beach combers

Littered with gay streets; tolerated, but no rights

Pattaya embraced me like a long lost lover

 

Over the hilly rice plains the rain gives life

My mechanical ear picks up clattering, thumping, tapping

And shouts of “Twenty bahts! Cheap! Cheap! Cheap!”

Merchants lay wares of ancient times.

Chiang Mai embraced me like a long lost lover

 

From the Andaman Sea to the golden plains

The Land of the Smiles always greets me warmly

Even though they see my broken ears and say

That I must have done wrong in my past life

Thailand embraced me like a long lost lover

Sandra Alland

Sandra Alland is a writer, filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist.Sandra writes poetry, fiction, essays and criticism. Her work experiments with form, and focuses on feminist, queer and disabled politics/poetics.

 

Website – blissfultimes.ca

 

Bea Webster

Bea Webster is a deaf Scottish-Thai actor and theatre-maker who graduated with a BA Performance in British Sign Language and English from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

 

She has published a poem in both BSL and English titled Long Lost Lover, about her birthplace of Thailand. She also performed in BBC Social’s How not to be d*cks to deaf people.Bea communicates in both Spoken English and British Sign Language.

 

Ania Urbanowska

Ania Urbanowska is an award winning filmmaker. Born in Poland, Ania moved to the artistic hub of Edinburgh to pursue directing in 2006, and has since participated in many independent film projects in a wide range of roles.

 

Ania has worked on numerous short fiction and documentary films but she also loves exploring possibilities of working with experimental formats, including her collaboration with Sandra Alland on three short BSL (British Sign Language) poetry films that were created and presented as part of Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back

 

Website – aniaurbanowska.com/

 

Credits

Bea’s Poem 1’ –

Credit: Bea Webster in the film ‘Long Lost Lover’, by Sandra Alland and Ania Urbanowska.

Photo by Ania Urbanowska.

 

Long Lost Lover –

A film by Sandra Alland and Ania Urbanowska. Composed in English and BSL by Bea Webster. Performed by Bea Webster. Projected photos by Klarissa B. Webster. BSL interpreting, translation consultation and voice-over by K. Yvonne Strain. Part of Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back (Nine Arches Press, 2017), edited by Sandra Alland, Khairani Barokka and Daniel Sluman.

 

Bea Webster

Created and presented as part of Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back (Nine Arches Press, 2017, edited by Sandra Alland, Khairani Barokka & Daniel Sluman).

 

Reproduced with permission of the authors.

 

Tags: 21st century poems British Sign Language (BSL) D/deafness English home identity scottish poems Thailand

About this poem

Poem in BSL and English by Bea Webster

Performed by Bea Webster

A film by Sandra Alland and Ania Urbanowska

Projected photos by Klarissa B. Webster

British Sign Language interpreting and translation consultation by K. Yvonne Strain

 

To view the video, visit:
vimeo.com/246089479