The Inspiration behind My Beautiful Voice

There is a great power in sharing your voice, in taking the stage, stepping into your light. I still remember my very first poetry gig. It was at The Poetry Society, I had heard of an open mic gig every Tuesday evening. I ran to the venue after finishing a horrendous day of selling advertising for an unscrupulous firm to get me through my degree course. I was wearing an ill-fitting suit bought for me by my mother from a charity shop to attend my school's National Record of Achievement evening several years previously. The shoulders were too big and square, my legs were lost in the trousers. I got to The Poetry Society sweating and continued to do so as I signed up for a one poem slot. I read an angry poem, a vaguely political poem, my knee caps shaking the whole time. The compere seemed a little bemused when I had finished, gave me a theatrical "thank you Joseph" and I could almost hear the eye roll. But I didn't care, I was elated, I was floating. I had read a poem, my poem, words I had written! To a room of attentive (possibly too polite) poetry lovers. I was hooked I sought more and more unpaid gigs in and around London and slowly but surely became part of the London poetry scene and saw first hand the power of poetry to inspire and move, to give voice, to intimidate and make the listener reflect.

I started getting kids to write poetry in schools. I wanted to give them the opportunity to see for themselves the innate power poetry has to impact, change and discover. I would often be asked into schools to engage children that struggled with literacy. I think often the feeling was that having  someone jumping around on stage using words would be the thing that got the kids interested, it rarely was. What I found got their interest piqued was the validation that poetry gave their own voices. They didn't want to hear another adult speaking at them, no matter how performative it was, they wanted to be heard and poetry offers that. In a poetry session students are often handed the pen as opposed to the book, are asked about their experiences as opposed to solely learn from the experiences of others. Because of its generally short format and ability to hone in on the details of a moment, a feeling or a time poetry is able to scream accessibility (though often we bury it in "correct" interpretation and make it feel less accessible than it is). The offer always was 'I'm a poet and so are you' not 'let's read the words of these great authors'. Of course there is much to be learnt from reading and appreciating the works of others, but so often in schools that flow is only ever in one direction with very little time free for students to discover why their voices and words are equally important.

Over the years I have worked in several classes with students suffering from elective mutism and a couple of times have seen students deciding to read a poem out loud, to share their voice with their whole class for the first time through poetry. This of course comes in the context of teachers and TAs and parents and friends working tirelessly with those students to support and nurture them but I find it incredible that I have seen poetry be the thing that they choose to first carry their voice. I think it is the accessible, non-threatening nature of poetry (when presented generously) that makes it a more likely vehicle for a child's voice. Poetry transports us as we listen, moves us deeply and makes it possible for us to do things we never before thought we could do. My Beautiful Voice was inspired by those children I've witnessed taking the stage to share their voice for the first time through poetry, not just due to elective mutism but because they are shy, or scared or just plain don't want to. Every-time I've seen a child face that fear, I'm reminded of my own first gig, of my own shaking knees and I wonder what shores these children will end up on because of their decision to step into their light.

Discover My Beautiful Voice by Joseph Coelho, published by Quarto (August 3rd 2021)...