Dec. 24, 2023
Audio
Everyone Welcome
By Stephen Lightbown
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EVERYONE WELCOME
By Stephen Lightbown
Rows of people in padmasana.
Legs crossed on their yoga mats.
Feet on thighs, hips open.
I’m also seated, in my wheelchair.
On the cusp of welcome.
Oh, I haven’t taught anyone in a wheelchair before,
I assume you know what you’re doing?
I contemplate the last part of the question
as an echo.
Through yoga I’ve learned to accept who I am,
to rebuild a relationship with my staccato body.
I cultivate a breath that flows through my whole,
each limb connected through an inhalation.
Sometimes the breath leads me to classes
where judgement, even fear, cloaks the face
of someone who desires to teach a body only like there’s.
So, I became my own teacher.
I ask what I need to feel.
The answer is not at the front of the room
but in the space
I create
by a lift in my chair, air beneath buttocks.
I use my hands to guide my legs.
I use the quiet parts, their whispered
energy to guide me.
Through that connection
I recognise, I am whole.
I have taught myself to listen
to my skin.
Stephen Lightbrown
Stephen Lightbown is a Blackburn-born, Bristol-based poet and disability rights champion. Paralysed following an accident in 1996 when he was sixteen, Stephen uses his poems to give a voice to his disability. He has spoken at events across the UK and at festivals such as Shambala, WOMAD, Verve Poetry Festival and Lyra Bristol Poetry Festival. In addition, Stephen has read internationally in San Antonio, Texas. His poems have been widely anthologised, and is the author of three poetry collections Only Air and The Last Custodian, both published by Burning Eye Books and his first poetry book for children, And I climbed, And I Climbed, through Troika Books. He lives in Bristol in the UK, and in November represented England for the second time at the ISA World Para Surf Championships in California.
Image Description: Stephen Lightbown, a white wheelchair user, wheelchair out of shot. He is a mid-forties male, with short greying hair. He is smiling, has light stubble and is wearing a brown, white and navy top with a navy collar. He is sat against a brick wall painted with neon green, pink and blue street art.