Unheard, unseen, ignored... but poetry is giving voice to the pandemic's forgotten millions
Disabled writers put their experiences, heartbreaking or uplifting, into verse for a groundbreaking competition
FEELINGS of isolation and helplessness are hitting us hard in this third lockdown. But feeling like prisoners in our own homes is a temporary situation for most of us. We know normal life is waiting on the other side of the vaccine rollout.The same cannot be said for the UK’s 14-million-strong disabled population. For many, the sad reality is they were excluded from society long before the arrival of coronavirus – their freedoms curtailed by unemployment, prejudice, financial worries and access issues. And it’s getting worse. Last month 67 per cent of 1,000 disabled people surveyed said they felt “forgotten” in the pandemic. Now, not-for-profit Disability Talk aims to shine a spotlight on this resilient group by sharing their experiences, by turns heartbreaking and uplifting, in the poetry competition My DisabledWorld. Some 15 winning entries were recently selected from a total of 126 by a judging panel including world-famous percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, who has been deaf since the age of 12, Hollywood actress Eileen Grubba, who became physically disabled in childhood, and Shadow Minister for Disabled PeopleVicky Foxcroft MP. Today, the Daily Express is delighted to share extracts of three of the winning poems along with their authors’ stories. Eileen, an acclaimed director and character star who has appeared in dozens of American hit shows including Watchmen, Sons of Anarchy and Dexter, told the Express she was the last judge to submit her shortlist as she struggled to narrow them down. “I could barely stop myself crying. The overwhelming feeling I got from these poets is that the majority of them felt unheard and unseen,” she says. Eileen is an advocate of Performers with Disabilities (PWD) and has first-hand knowledge of being ignored and belittled. Three months before her fifth birthday, she received a vaccine that resulted in a shrunken spine and for many years doctors thought her condition was caused by polio. She was in a wheelchair for much of her childhood but was eventually able to walk with a limp after multiple surgeries. At her first agent’s meeting in New York in 1995, she was asked to walk across a room. Eileen recalls: “I did so, and turned around and smiled. He said, ‘You’re never going to work in this industry. You walk funny.’”
ANOTHER time Eileen’s orthopaedic shoes were mocked in front of a room full of students. But her most “traumatising” episode came after successfully auditioning for an advert only to be physically dragged out of shot because “they didn’t want to see me walking on camera”. “Commercial agents still won’t take me on,” Eileen continues. “After 30 years in this industry, I am still unable to work in commercials.” It’s that experience of alienation that is reflected in many of the competition’s verses. In her poem I Care, Karen Beswick writes, “I care, That you stare, And pull that weird face, As you pass in the park, With a look of distaste.” Musician Dame Evelyn says the poems give “a true glimpse of how we all have a story to tell” to the reader. She says: “I wanted to allow myself to be in their shoes for a moment and to then think how I could relate to this situation in
‘Disabled people are skilled at adapting and overcoming, and facing fears’
a deeper way.” She adds that competitions like My Disabled World, sponsored by Virgin Media, are “crucial” in acknowledging the contributions disabled people make socially and culturally. Vicky Foxcroft agrees. “I didn’t feel like I was reading entries by people who had written poetry or entered a competition for the first time,” she says.
“They were emotional, powerful and well articulated; some were funny and others were clever.”
She highlighted the competition’s success in Parliament and how the Leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, encouraged her to “read out selections to the House”.
But Vicky wants to see changes, citing the lack of British Sign Language at the regular Government press conferences 10 months
into the pandemic as “ridiculous”. It is an irony given that competitions such as My Disabled World reveal the excellent communicators that disabled people are when afforded the opportunity. Eileen goes further, stressing people with disabilities are best positioned to help world leaders understand how individuals can handle adversity during these testing times. “We are the people who know how to survive and you want to bring in the people who know how to do it,” she says. “Disabled people are skilled at adapting and overcoming, and facing fears.” Her hope is that children in the future won’t face the same painful and intrusive experiences she endured along the way. “We have to let these voices be heard,” she says. “We need to start to understand that all humans are equal, all of us, no matter who we are and what differences exist. “Until that happens, we will not have a well-functioning society.” ●●Read all of the winning poems of My Disabled World at www.disabilitytalk. co.uk