In the wake of his father's death, the speaker in Raymond Antrobus' The Perseverance travels to Gaudi's cathedral in Barcelona. Ruminating on the idea of silence and sound, he wonders whether acoustics really can bring us closer to God. As he receives information through his hearing aid technology, he considers how deaf people are included in this idea: 'Even though,' he says, 'I have not heard / the golden decibel of angels, / I have been living in a noiseless / palace where the doorbell is pulsating / light and I am able to answer.' So begins a stunning examination of a deaf experience alongside meditations on loss, grief, education, and language, both spoken and signed.

Echo --Aunt Beryl Meets Castro -- My Mother Remembers -- Jamaican British -- Ode to My Hair -- The Perseverance -- I Move Through London like a Hotep -- Sound Machine -- Dear Hearing World -- 'Deaf School' / by Ted Hughes -- After Reading 'Deaf School' by the Mississippi River -- For Jesula Gelin, Vanessa Previl and Monique Vincent -- Conversation with the Art Teacher (a Translation Attempt) -- The Ghost of Laura Bridgman Warns Helen Keller About Fame -- The Mechanism of Speech -- Doctor Marigold Re-evaluated -- The Shame of Mabel Gardiner Hubbard -- Two Guns in the Sky for Daniel Harris -- To Sweeten Bitter -- I Want the Confidence of -- After Being Called a Fucking Foreigner in London Fields -- Closure -- Maybe I Could Love a Man -- Samantha -- Thinking of Dad's Dick -- Miami Airport -- His Heart -- Dementia -- Happy Birthday Moon.