I am intrigued by how poets are influenced by their visual sense. This is reflected in their verse, as well as the use of accompanying photographs and other visual artwork. And many of you practice both Taiga and Haiga poetry.
This leads me to wonder about the poetry of blind poets. First, which poets were/are blind? Besides Homer and John Milton, I was at loss to name any others, so I started a small research project.
Please help me build a list of blind poets.
Here are those I have identified thus far: the ancient Greek poet Homer, 17th century English poet John Milton, 15th century Hindi poet Sant Surdas, contemporary Australian poet Michelle Taylor, 9th century Persian poet Rudaki (alledgedly blind), 18th century Irish poet Anthony Raftery, 9th century Arab-Spanish poet Muqaddam Ibn Mu afa al-Qabri, 19th century American hymn writer and poet Fanny Crosby, 19th century Jewish-American poet Penina Moise, Haldane Burgess, Shetland’s famous blind poet, Irish poet Raftery, 10 century Sufi-Buddhist poet Abdul Ala-al-Marri, and Asik Veysel, 20th century Turkish songwriter and poet.
In advance, thank you for your help.
Poetic Alchemist 