Leech (1969), considering English poetry, treats poems as linguistically deviant forms of language in which the form and content are “foregrounded” against a background of nondeviant language. The deviant language that is used may be noticeably irregular or noticeably regular. The content of the poem may also be deviant as the poet creates meanings that are not expected to be taken literally. I have applied these ideas to the British Sign Language (BSL) poem “Trio” by the late Deaf poet Dorothy Miles. Analysis of this poem shows the same features in BSL poetry that Leech found in English poetry. The poetry of Dorothy (Dot) Miles is widely considered in Britain to be some of the best BSL poetry in the public domain. Her work is powerful, thoroughly crafted, and richly significant at many levels, and it easily justifies—and rewards—careful linguistic analysis. One well-known feature of Dot’s poetry is that it frequently “works” both in English and in BSL. This feature, however, will not be the focus of this chapter. Instead, I will consider the features of BSL that create the richness of the three-part poem, “Trio,” which is made up of three stanzas: Morning, Afternoon, and Evening.1 The starting point for this analysis is the fact that poetry is a deviation from ordinary language. Poetry is not only allowed to deviate from normal patterns of ordinary language, but also it is expected to do so. Careful choice of linguistic forms allows the poet to produce language that carries significance far greater than that of ordinary language. Leech (1969) has defined foregrounding as the deviation from linguistic norms for the sake of art. The foregrounding in “Trio” occurs in two different types of deviation that involve noticeably irregular and noticeably regular use of language. In the first type, poetic deviation creates a