Besides my family, there’s nothing I love more than my library at home. Its tall bookshelves are filled with books of all kinds; novels, poetry, essays, biographies, dictionaries, etc., and now and then I bring home additional volumes purchased in the nearest bookshop.
My husband sometimes questions the need to buy more books when I haven’t yet read all the ones already in my possession. But I call it an investment.
One of the books on my poetry shelf is a hefty anthology of poetry of disability, Beauty is a Verb, and if someone I know hadn’t once recommended this book to me, I might not have discovered the powerful writings of Laura Hershey (1962-2010).
An American poet, writer and journalist, Hershey was born with a form of muscular dystrophy and spent her life in a wheelchair. Not only was she a prominent voice in the disability rights movement, but she was also a champion of women’s rights and social justice.
She worked tirelessly to challenge negative perceptions of people with disabilities and, fighting for equal rights, she wrote:
“We have to demand the things that are essential to our lives, equality, and quality of life…We must refuse to feel gratitude for these, except the normal level of gratitude that anyone might feel for living in a time and place that still supports human life.”
You Get Proud by Practicing, is one of her best-known poems and I believe its message is highly relevant to all of us, whether or not we have a disability:
If you are not proud
For who you are, for what you say, for how you look;
If every time you stop
To think of yourself, you do not see yourself glowing
With golden light; do not, therefore, give up on yourself.
You can get proud.
You do not need
A better body, a purer spirit, or a Ph.D.
To be proud.
You do not need
A lot of money, a handsome boyfriend, or a nice car.
You do not need
To be able to walk, or see, or hear,
Or use big, complicated words,
Or do any of those things that you just can’t do
To be proud. A caseworker
Cannot make you proud,
Or a doctor.
You only need more practice.
You get proud by practicing.
There are many many ways to get proud.
You can try riding a horse, or skiing on one leg,
Or playing the guitar.
And do well or not so well,
And be glad you tried
Either way.
You can show
Something you’ve made
To someone you respect
And be happy with it no matter
What they say.
You can say
What you think, though you know
Other people do not think the same way, and you can
Keep saying it, even if they tell you
You are crazy.
You can add your voice
All night to the voices
Of a hundred and fifty others
In a circle
Around a jailhouse
Where your brothers and sisters are being held
For blocking buses with no lifts,
Or you can be one of the ones
Inside the jailhouse,
Knowing of the circle outside.
You can speak your love
To a friend
Without fear.
You can find someone who will listen to you
Without judging you or doubting you or being
Afraid of you
And let you hear yourself perhaps
For the very first time.
These are all ways
Of getting proud.
None of them
Are easy, but all of them
Are possible. You can do all of these things,
Or just one of them again and again.
You get proud
By practicing.
Power makes you proud, and power
Comes in many fine forms
Supple and rich as butterfly wings.
It is music
When you practice opening your mouth
And liking what you hear
Because it is the sound of your own
True voice.
It is sunlight
When you practice seeing
Strength and beauty in everyone,
Including yourself.
It is dance
When you practice knowing
That what you do
And the way you do it
Is the right way for you
And cannot be called wrong.
All these hold
More power than weapons or money
Or lies.
All these practices bring power, and power
Makes you proud.
You get proud
By practicing.
Remember, you weren’t the one
Who made you ashamed,
But you are the one
Who can make you proud.
Just practice,
Practice until you get proud, and once you are proud,
Keep practicing so you won’t forget.
You get proud
By practicing.
Born Whole 