Voice, powerful and strong like a blade to skin
Born to fight but the words were trouble
Although I was my mothers kin
I had been stuck in my own bubble
Words wouldn't come out correct
so I always stopped and checked
thought long and hard on words I said
always changing them around in my head
Others seemed to stop and laugh
all due to the way I spoke
Quite frankly I couldn't handle this riffraff
So I wanted to hide in my invisibility cloak
all because I couldn't help but choke
I dreamt of times of better days
I dreamt that all my troubles went away
The voice had been a battle in every which way
The battle for my thu'um gave me life
it gave me a gift
it gave me a mind as sharp as a knife
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Author:
Mikhail (Pseudonym) (
Offline) - Published: January 31st, 2021 12:43
- Comment from author about the poem: For my English class in college, we were assigned to write a poem, make a PowerPoint, etc. about a personal experience about literacy and how it has shaped you, and by personal definition being literate is by the way you write, read, and speak a certain language, in my case English. Now, I can read and write it just fine, but I have a minor stutter, so I decided to write about how it's like having a stutter. Been a while since I've last posted due to having writer's block, so I saw this as an opportunity to seize the day and try again. I would prefer any feedback you can give please and thank you!!
- Category: Unclassified
- Views: 21
Offline)
Comments5
I'm no expert on poetic forms or professional poetry, etc.
This speaks (pun intended maybe!) to me of an example of triumph over, or through, adversity.
With stutters, they can be worse if we are too stressed or anxious - you will know, no doubt.
Yet your words, and those of stutterers, to whatever degree they may have the condition, are as valuable and useful as anyone else's. To 'close down' and not speak, can be negative.
The longer we fear, are anxious, etc, to speak, the worse it becomes to actually do it?
1) Nice profile picture those animals are adorable!! 2) nice pun! 3) Thank you for your kind words and for being able to understand what I was able to try to convey!!
I am not qualified to teach, treat or critique you. I enjoyed reading your poem. Although writing anxiety is difficult to cope with, solutions are possible.
Thank you, Mr. J Reynolds! I'm glad you enjoyed the poem and it is difficult to cope with but I'm exploring my options to better assist my coping or find alternatives to help my stutter and anxiety
Great writing, great poem, Mikhail. And don't worry about the stuttering. As a teen I stuttered quite a bit, but with a lot of concentration, slow speaking and eventually not caring about it anymore it went away and never came back. Maybe I was lucky, I have no idea. Never went to see a doctor either. At that time 'one did not do that'.
Concentrate on your writing and your sharp mind!!! Don't think about the delivery. I may be wrong, but with me, the more I thought about it the worse it got.
Thank you for your kind words, Mr. Peyer!!! And no I agree with you on the last part on how the more you think about the stutter the worse it gets and I learnt that the hard way if I'm going to be honest. Lastly, I will do my best to focus and concentrate on my mind and writing, thank you again!!
Good strong words Mikhail. Strangely my daughter and I were discussing stuttering yesterday, she stutters and has done for over 50 years but she is now part of an organisation that is helping people wiht the situation here in the UK.
What you need to believe is that your stuttering is part of you and that people must accept you for what you are and if they can't accept that, it is their problem not yours.
Andy
really well thought-out, especially highlighted by that one stanza you specifically insured was off-beat and thus, insured we took note of those lines, smart and really well executed,
identifying those 'riff-raff' in our lives is one step closer to keeping their unwanted influence - at a distance,
and a step nearer to unravelling that self we keep coiled and ready to claim that light of day: when we dare
to walk - proud, in our own fallible skin...
good write! thanks for sharing dear Poet
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