Here is a selection of the feedback we have received from young people participating in the project.
1.”The project gave all the students who participated a chance to let out their feelings and say how they really felt, and that is a really difficult thing to do. Performing in public wasn’t very hard, I love audiences and always laugh at what I see and get from them when they watch. Travelling around wasn’t exactly different to my normal style of getting about but I was doing it more than I had which is a bit of change.
Seen but Seldom Heard is definitely something I would feel happy about taking part in in the near future if they find the money to do anymore shows, I think it’s a really great idea they have come up with. I hope it will help to create many disabled poets.”
2. “Seen but Seldom Heard was the most inspiring, fulfilling and eye-opening project I have ever been involved in. At the start of spring 2012, three experienced poets came to perform at my college – Victoria Education Centre and Sports College. This summer of 2012 during our afternoon slot on Friday, a small group of us were to experiment and practice writing p0etry. I performed this at Weymouth Cultural Olympiad in the 360 dome tent and at Bournemouth University and also at my own college of course. From the series of standing ovations, I gained masses of confidence. Hopefully this will inspire and encourage me to continue writing poetry. If it is good enough, perhaps it will come to a bookstore near you.”
3. “I made a poem with my friends Nick and John called “Disability for Me”. It is about people who have a disability who should lead a normal life like they should be able to achieve what they want in the future. It was useful to me by writing about my disability and everyone there was very understanding about my stammer, they gave me time to speak and say my own opinions. It also helps me learn how to write the poems and having my poems published makes me feel famous!”
4. “I don’t class myself as being disabled so in my poems, I ask the question “Why I am disabled if I am capable doing all the things I want to do and I lead as much a normal life as anyone else?” It is my belief that everyone is disabled in one way or another and I try to portray this vision in my poem in a unusual way.”