MISSION STATEMENT

SILENT VOICES SPEAK started out as Silent Voices: A Writer’s Workshop, as the first group at the drop-in center at the Broadway location of Community Counseling Centers of Chicago, whose purpose is to empower it’s attendees to form and attend their own groups.

We have branched out as an independent entity. We are silent no more. We say yes to the creative possibilities of life & art...

The mission of SILENT VOICES SPEAK is to give a voice to people who are disenfranchised. Many of the participants in SILENT VOICES SPEAK are also visual and/or performing artists.

Membership is open to all.
Send submissions to lizhipwell@gmail.com.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

I'M SORRY by Elizabeth Hipwell

I'm sorry for your blanket judgement
Catching hold onto my oh-so-naughty vulnerability
God forbid I don't smile when I am sad
When the mask of okayness
Slips and cracks open
To never be put back together in the same way

I am sorry that my excruciating pain
Makes you cringe
Do I see anger?
Do I see fear?
No elicitation of compassion?

I am sorry that my illness
(yes, it is an illness)
Does not manifest itself as tangible, visible proof
If you don't see it,
It doesn't count, right?

I am sorry that you don't see me,
Cracks and all
That you find this imperfection Unlovable
Unacceptable
And not okay.

I'm sorry
So sorry
That you are unable (unwilling) 
To care as I care for you,
That you tolerate,
Rather than celebrate me.

I'm sorry that our relationship
Has fallen short of our expectations and my my hope for us.

Yet,
I love you...
Still...

And for that,
I am not sorry

-Image & Words by Elizabeth Hipwell
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