{"id":340,"date":"2010-06-19T20:04:11","date_gmt":"2010-06-20T03:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laurahershey.com\/?p=340"},"modified":"2023-05-15T13:40:19","modified_gmt":"2023-05-15T20:40:19","slug":"340","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laurahershey.com\/?p=340","title":{"rendered":"From the Archives: Old Poem, “You Get Proud By Practicing”"},"content":{"rendered":"

In honor of LGBT Pride Month — and to honor and encourage all kinds of people embracing the risks of visibility and pride — I decided to re-post a very old poem of mine. It remains a favorite of mine, and of lots of other people. It’s been reprinted in a number of places, most recently in an anthology called Fire in the Soul: 100 Poems for Human Rights<\/a><\/em>. It speaks of the right to feel proud, and offers some exercises for achieving pride.<\/p>\n

YOU GET PROUD BY PRACTICING<\/p>\n

Copyright 1991 by Laura Hershey<\/p>\n

If you are not proud
\nfor who you are, for what you say, for how you look;
\nif every time you stop
\nto think of yourself, you do not see yourself glowing
\nwith golden light; do not, therefore, give up on yourself.
\nYou can
\nget proud.<\/p>\n

You do not need
\na better body, a purer spirit, or a Ph.D.
\nto be proud.
\nYou do not need
\na lot of money, a handsome boyfriend, or a nice car.
\nYou do not need
\nto be able to walk, or see, or hear,
\nor use big, complicated words,
\nor do any of the things that you just can’t do
\nto be proud. A caseworker
\ncannot make you proud,
\nor a doctor.
\nYou only need
\nmore practice.
\nYou get proud
\nby practicing.<\/p>\n

There are many many ways to get proud.
\nYou can try riding a horse, or skiing on one leg,
\nor playing guitar,
\nand do well or not so well,
\nand be glad you tried
\neither way.
\nYou can show
\nsomething you’ve made
\nto someone you respect
\nand be happy with it no matter
\nwhat they say.
\nYou can say
\nwhat you think, though you know
\nother people do not think the same way, and you can
\nkeep saying it, even if they tell you
\nyou are crazy.
\nYou can add your voice
\nall night to the voices
\nof a hundred and fifty others
\nin a circle
\naround a jailhouse
\nwhere your brothers and sisters are being held
\nfor blocking buses with no lift,
\nor you can be one of the ones
\ninside the jailhouse,
\nknowing of the circle outside.
\nYou can speak your love
\nto a friend
\nwithout fear.
\nYou can find someone
\nwho will listen to you
\nwithout judging you or doubting you or being
\nafraid of you
\nand let you hear yourself perhaps
\nfor the first time.
\nThese are all ways
\nof getting proud.
\nNone of them
\nare easy, but all of them
\nare possible. You can do all of these things,
\nor just one of them again and again.
\nYou get proud
\nby practicing.<\/p>\n

Power makes you proud, and power
\ncomes in many fine forms
\nsupple and rich as butterfly wings.
\nIt is music
\nwhen you practice opening your mouth
\nand liking what you hear
\nbecause it is the sound of your own
\ntrue voice.
\nIt is sunlight
\nwhen you practice seeing
\nstrength and beauty in everyone
\nincluding yourself.
\nIt is dance
\nwhen you practice knowing
\nthat what you do
\nand the way you do it
\nis the right way for you
\nand can’t be called wrong.
\nAll these hold
\nmore power than weapons or money
\nor lies.
\nAll these practices bring power, and power
\nmakes you proud.
\nYou get proud
\nby practicing.<\/p>\n

Remember, you weren’t the one
\nwho made you ashamed,
\nbut you are the one
\nwho can make you proud.
\nJust practice,
\npractice until you get proud, and once you are proud,
\nkeep practicing so you won’t forget.
\nYou get proud
\nby practicing.<\/p>\n

By the way, if you would like to order a poetry chapbooks, audiotapes, or poster featuring this poem, “You Get Proud By Practicing,” you can email Laura<\/a> at contact@laurahershey.com<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In honor of LGBT Pride Month — and to honor and encourage all kinds of people embracing the risks of visibility and pride — I decided to re-post a very old poem of mine. It remains a favorite of mine, and of lots of other people. It’s been reprinted in a number of places, most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63,48],"tags":[42,11,159,10,158,160],"class_list":["post-340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disability-culture","category-poems","tag-activism","tag-disability","tag-lgbt","tag-poetry","tag-pride","tag-self-esteem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurahershey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurahershey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurahershey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurahershey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurahershey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=340"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/laurahershey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":520,"href":"https:\/\/laurahershey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions\/520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurahershey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurahershey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurahershey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}