Page 10 - Behind The Smile - Summer 2015

Le Hinton, poet
Poems and Poetry for LCPC
October 7 @ 7pm Tellus 3600, Lancaster
Le Hinton describes himself as a young boy as:
“Quiet, cautious and not willing to say very much in school; I spent a lot of time reading and dreaming. I was a good student but painfully shy. In classes even when I knew the answers, I wouldn’t always raise my hand. I was afraid of my voice. My family and friends didn’t treat me differently, but there were kids in the neighborhood and at school who sometimes teased me. Being different isn’t always fun when you are young and trying to fit in.”
Le was born with a cleft palate. His talks about his early visits to LCPC as giving “ hope that I might be able to express myself out loud instead of only on paper in the poems that I was writing even as a teenager.” This finally hap- pened when he had surgery at
17 and his life changed. He went away to college and a few years
ago retired from a 28-year career with Social Security. Le says, “I spent my time talking face-to-face with disability recipients in hear- ings, asking questions and listen- ing. None of these things would have been possible without the therapy, surgery and treatment that I received at the Clinic.”
Le never stopped being a poet: writing in solitude and reading in public. Not only have his poems appeared in many journals, but one of his poems can be seen in the form of a sculpture outside the Lancaster Barnstormers’ Stadium. He is the editor of Fledgling Rag, a national poet- ry journal, based in Lancaster County whose contributors have included two state poets laure- ate and poets who have won the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and the Newbery Medal.
His life-changing experiences at LCPC inspired his poem
Flash Cards/Flash Back seen here. Le has remained a good friend to the Clinic. Two years
“I was afraid of my voice... Being different isn’t always fun when you are young and trying to fit in.”
ago when he launched the latest issue of Fledgling Rag he donat- ed all the proceeds to the Clinic.
He is doing the same again on October 7 when nine of the finest poets in Lancaster County, poets who are nationally known for their work, will give a special reading of poems from the newest issue of Fledgling Rag. They will be joined by special guest poets from the Lancaster Cleft Palate Clinic family.
Page 10 __________________________ Lancaster Cleft Palate Clinic ••• Behind the Smile eMagazine ••• Summer 2015
Fledgling Rag 15
featuring:
Jeff Rath
Also
Fledgling Rag 15
Patricia Hanahoe Dosch Eileen Kinch
Gwyn McVay
Marci Nelligan
Daina Savage
J.M. Servansky
Barbara Buckman Strasko Jesse Waters