Telling by Laura Hershey - Read by Nancy Sendler
Channel: Petite Porch Performances
Date: 2023-02-22

Telling by Laura Hershey (Poet, Artist & Activist 1962–2010)

What you risk telling your story:
You will bore them.
Your voice will break, your ink
spill and stain your coat.
No one will understand, their eyes
become fences.
You will park yourself forever
on the outside, your differentness once
and for all revealed, dangerous.
The names you give to yourself
will become epithets.
Your happiness will be called
bravery, denial.
Your sadness will justify their pity.
Your fear will magnify their fears.
Everything you say will prove something about
their god, or their economic system.
Your feelings, that change day
to day, kaleidoscopic,
will freeze in place,
brand you forever,
justify anything they decide to do
with you.
Those with power can afford
to tell their story
or not.
Those without power
risk everything to tell their story
and must.
Someone, somewhere
will hear your story and decide to fight,
to live and refuse compromise.
Someone else will tell
her own story,
risking everything.

“She was a genius who lived with disability and lived well.”
- https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/laura-hershey
- http://www.laurahershey.com/

"Brilliant! Your work is really quite different, a new kind of genre which everyone ought to be really excited about.” Professor David A Kolb, Bates College philosophy dept. chair (retired) and hypertext fiction pioneer compared my work to 20th century, classical music composer John Cage’s genius, experimental and influential compositions. “Nancy writes poetically, ironically, in deeply interconnected ways." -  https://dkolb.org/

Please help fund my poetry, videos, musicals love stories and other Petite Porch Performances creative endeavors via my Go Fund Me campaign - 
https://gofund.me/8b55ca07

A NOVEL MODEST PROPOSAL – Interactive eLiterature Repertoire of Cyber Satiric Love Stories
Curated by Petite Porch Performances & Nine Fools Wise

∞ The Case of the Disappearing Dandelions – A Musical Mystery (PDF)
∞ Musical Trilogy 20/20 – Three YouTube Playlists (Textless)
      • Independence Day 20/20 – A Musical Journey
      • US Election 20/20 – A Musical Celebration
      • Holiday Lights 20/20 – A Musical Flight (Gift)
∞  ANMP Sneak Preview Chapters – Title & Prelude and Rabbit & Violin (PDF)
∞  Pandemic Survival Guide – A Musical Adaptation (Peekaboo PDF)
∞  If God – A Musical State of Mind (Peekaboo PDF)
∞  WHY – A Musical Revolution
∞  Unboxing Time – A Musical Museum
∞  Glorious Goodness Goddess Ginger Snaps – The Musical Recipe (PDF)
∞  A Novel Modest Proposal – A Musical Illumination (evolving)

Nancy Sendler & the divine feline cupid kitty Hazelton
Poet & New Media Writer, Conscientious Coincidence Collector, Constellation Dancer, Dreamer & Dandelion Lover

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyHLtilmsYDwpIDp6UDICPw
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancysendler/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/NancySendler

Photo from The Poetry Foundation