Poetry has become a beautiful medium for me to express the experiences of chronic illness and in general the life lessons learnt from it.
I’ve also been writing and recording spoken word poetry, but I hadn’t created a space for the short poems I’ve been writing, so now, this is the place (and of course my Instagram too!)
You can check out some of my spoken word poetry pieces here:
- “Endo…What?!” | Diagnosed With Endometriosis, Age 11
- “Courage and I are In a Relationship” | How to Build Courage…
- Wheelchair = Freedom? | Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome | Disability
1. This poem doesn’t just reflect what it’s like in the literal sense for me (falling and getting up because of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome), but also what all of us manage to do in life – we all get up from our falls, we all walk again.
“I stood, I walked, I fell.
I stood, I walked, again.”
~Shruti Chopra
2. This is an excerpt from my spoken-word poem “Wheelchair = Freedom?” – if you like this excerpt in which I share how my mum’s will inspired me, and would like to hear the rest of the poem, then you can here.
“My mum
at 66
Became my
Heartbroken
Charioteer.
She now
Developed
stronger strides,
A straight back
moved forward
no slackA tear rolled down
But her strength grew
She pushed
With more
Purpose
Just as mothers do…”~ Shruti Chopra
The drawing is of my mother. It’s been drawn by my brother, Ajay – you can see more of his art on Instagram here.
3. When you live with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), you also live with fragile skin, which cuts, stretches and scars easily – it takes longer to heal too.
But we all have things we’re fragile about – but how much do we let it get to us? How much of our purpose does it control or shape? Does it add fear? That’s for us to answer for ourselves.
Ooo.. for those wondering why there’s black and white lines? Those who have EDS are known as medical zebras – and zebras have black and white stripes, so that’s why, there are black and white lines.
“The fragility of my skin
Doesn’t affect the strength of my soul.The fragility of my mind
is what I need to work on more”~ Shruti Chopra
4. As Toby passed, my hand was on his heart till its last beat and we just looked at each other. This short poem is about that moment of gratitude that I felt for having him come into my life and a realisation that we’ve always had this bond.
Drawing of Toby done by Ajay @followarchitect – thank you Ajay for this special drawing of my handsome boy.
He looked up at me
With warmth and love
A quiet “thank you”
And he slipped away”~ Shruti Chopra
I will keep adding more of my short poems as I write and post them on my Instagram.
If you resonate, or wish to share your own experience with disability, endometriosis, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome or anything that you connect with here, then do drop in your comments, your thoughts in the comments sections below.
If you’re a social media person, then you can follow me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest or YouTube.
I have a podcast too. You can check them out here along with their transcripts or if you don’t wanna read them then they’re available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts too.