….
A Love Story with Hope
““`
The frustrating thing about existing,
is the hope that springs from revelation
doesn’t last.
You think you’ll be changed from that instant on.
That you’ll finally move past the old ways.
That a switch has been flipped.
But change doesn’t happen that quick.
You unlearn and relearn.
Apply, and try, and feel ungratified
until a pattern emerges
from all the self-work that you’ve done,
and some memory of that initial frustration
flirts with your sense of hope again.
““`
This poem is from the chapbook Confessions of a Stutterer by Tyson Higel (Finishing Line Press), and is available at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/confessions-of-a-stutterer-by-tyson-higel/
Confessions of a Stutterer is an honest account of living a #life of secrecy—that is, until the author’s mouth betrays him. In this brave tell-all, Higel’s #poems articulate what is often left unspoken for as a person who #stutters. Coursing from attempts at deception to detection, his poems speak to the embarrassment, shame, and eventual acceptance of what needs, no longer, to be hidden. From tragedy to triumph, these personal poems are relatable to all of us, in our own personal way.
Tyson Higel is a nurse, a poet, and most unimportant of all, a person who stutters. His difficulty with speaking is what led him to writing, however—a landscape in which words are no longer obstacles, but bridges. Confessions of a Stutterer aims to be a bridge itself, to connect the reader, the listener, to what goes unspoken for from those who struggle with speaking.
The Paddock Review 