Finding Freedom: Disability and Self-Expression through Poetry
For many people, poetry is a way to process the world, to capture fleeting thoughts, explore identity, and connect with others. But for those living with disability, poetry often becomes something even more profound: a tool for self-expression when society tries to speak over them.
Disability and self-expression through poetry is a topic that matters deeply to poets like Jenni Bailey. Living with cerebral palsy, Jenni knows firsthand what it means to navigate a world that doesn’t always listen to disabled voices. Her poetry creates space for honesty, vulnerability, and truth in ways that challenge assumptions and open minds.
The Power of Naming Your Own Story
For many people with disabilities, storytelling isn’t just creative, it’s revolutionary. Too often, disabled stories are told by others: doctors, caregivers, media outlets that focus on “inspiration” instead of real human complexity.
Poetry gives disabled people a way to reclaim their stories. By writing about their daily realities, the good, the bad, and the in-between, they make it clear that their voices matter and deserve to be heard.
Jenni Bailey’s poems do exactly this. She writes about the body, pain, survival, and the fierce beauty of choosing to speak even when others might look away.
Self-Expression as Resistance
Disability and self-expression through poetry isn’t about fitting into what mainstream poetry expects. It’s about breaking the mold entirely. For poets like Jenni, the act of writing and performing is an act of resistance, pushing back against stereotypes that cast disabled people as helpless or broken.
Her verses challenge the reader to see disability not as something to pity, but as a lens that shapes powerful, necessary perspectives. By putting her experience front and center, Jenni’s work reminds us that every story deserves space.
The Role of Spoken Word
For many poets, writing is only the beginning. Spoken word takes that expression and breathes life into it. When a disabled poet performs, they claim physical and emotional space in a way that defies silence.
Jenni Bailey’s spoken word performances show what happens when poetry leaves the page and becomes a living conversation. Her delivery, tone, and presence prove that her voice cannot be ignored.
In a world that too often erases or talks over disabled voices, performance poetry is a clear, powerful refusal to stay quiet.
Building Community Through Shared Words
Self-expression through poetry isn’t just about the poet. It’s also about the people who read or listen and see themselves reflected in those words. For disabled readers and audiences, finding poets like Jenni can be life-changing.
A young person navigating life with a disability might hear Jenni’s poem and realize they, too, can write their story in their own words. They can speak it, shout it, or whisper it , but it belongs to them.
That ripple effect is what makes disability and self-expression through poetry so powerful. One voice sparks another. One poem opens the door for countless untold stories.
Making Room for Disabled Voices
Historically, the literary world hasn’t always been welcoming to disabled artists. Accessibility barriers, biases, and gatekeeping have kept too many brilliant voices out of mainstream conversations.
But that’s changing. More poets with disabilities are building platforms online, publishing independently, and performing for audiences who want the raw honesty that comes from lived experience.
Jenni Bailey is part of this shift. By sharing her work, she shows other disabled artists that their creativity isn’t just valid, it’s vital.
How to Support Disabled Poets
If you believe in the power of poetry to change lives, one of the best things you can do is support disabled poets. Buy their books. Watch their performances. Share their work.
When you uplift poets like Jenni Bailey, you help create a literary world that’s richer, braver, and more honest. You help prove that all stories deserve to be told, not despite disability, but because the perspective is so needed.
An Invitation to Listen
If you’ve never read poetry by a disabled writer, now is the perfect time to start. Begin with Jenni Bailey’s raw, beautiful poems. Listen to her spoken word performances that don’t hold anything back. Let her honesty challenge your assumptions about what disability means and what art can do.
Through her work, you’ll see how disability and self-expression through poetry are deeply connected, and how each poem becomes a testament to the power of claiming your truth.
Final Thoughts
At its heart, poetry is about voice, and everyone deserves one. When poets like Jenni Bailey write about their lives, they show us the beauty, complexity, and strength that come from living authentically.
Disability and self-expression through poetry remind us that creativity has no limits. It doesn’t need permission. It just needs a page, a stage, and the courage to speak.
If you’re ready to listen, Jenni’s poems are waiting.