Pamela MertzAbout the Author:Pamela Mertz is a person who stutters who is actively involved in the global stuttering community. She is a past Board member of both the International Stuttering Association, and USA National Stuttering Association. She blogs at www.stutterrockstar.com and hosts the popular podcast “Women Who Stutter: Our Stories.” She was inducted into the National Stuttering Association Hall of Fame in 2022.

Stuttering comes in shapes and sounds

Some are fat and some are loud

Maybe it’s a minor nuisance 

Or something of which we are proud

 

Proud, you say? How can that be?

We’re often laughed at, then feel shame

It’s hard to stand up and speak

When feeling we have to play a game

 

Stuttering is not just one size or shape

It’s who we are and how we talk

We need to persist and not back down

And talk our talk and walk our walk

 

People want different things 

Maybe therapy to learn some tools

Or meeting others who stutter too

So we’re not alone as we figure out the rules

 

Stuttering is hard, it can tire us out

How the world reacts is sometimes tough

Try as we might, and try we do

It can seem impossible to feel enough

 

Assumptions and myths about how we talk

Make us feel different and misunderstood 

Many people don’t know someone who stutters

Or if they do, they see stuttering as less than good

 

We can change that by not holding back

By speaking up when it’s our turn

We can teach the world to nurture difference

It’s up to us to help them learn

 

One size does NOT fit all

That goes for everything, for all of us

Every one of us has a “thing” 

Life would be easier if we stopped the fuss

And just listened with open ears and heart

To everything, even the occasional cuss! 

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Comments

Shapes and Sounds – Pamela Mertz — 37 Comments

  1. Thank you for stopping by to read my poem. I hope it gives you something to reflect up. Enjoy the ISAD conference. There is so much to learn here.

  2. Pamela,
    Thank you for sharing your poem. I feel that the stuttering experience can be so different for everyone, can have different colours, different lights as well as shadows, different textures, tastes, and as you mentioned, different shapes and sounds.
    Your poem touched my heart! Thank you!

    • Thank you so much Cynthia, for reading and for the kind comments. Growing up with a stutter, not only did I think I was the only one who stuttered, but I also had no idea how many different ways there are to stutter. Stuttering is individual, variable and oh so interesting.

      Pam

  3. Hi Pam
    I like your poem about stuttering. I liked Julian’s and Anita’s too. Perhaps ISA could start some sort of online presence for people to post poems about stammer?
    I like to write them too. If you want to have a look I have a couple on the Stamma website under Your Voice.
    Good luck with the rest of the conference!
    Tim

    • Hi Tim,
      Thank you. I’ve always enjoyed poetry but didn’t take a stab at writing poetry about stuttering until a few years ago. I really enjoyed writing a poem and “performing it” at a Stutter Slam event at a NSA conference a few years ago. It was very empowering and so much fun. (I won first place out of about 20 entrants.)
      I will look for some of your poems at Stamma. And yes, it might be fun to encourage more poetry at next year’s ISAD conference.

      Pam

    • Thanks for reading Hanan, and for sharing it on Facebook. I really appreciated that!

      Pam

  4. AWESOME poem Pam! Your beautiful words captured how we all experience stuttering differently but, invites us to come together to spread the word and nuture our beautiful difference!
    Thank you!
    -Mandy

    • Thank you Mandy. I am so glad you stopped by and read my poem. We do indeed experience stuttering differently, each of us.

      Pam

  5. Pam, I am so thankful that you have openly shared your story and are “teaching the world to nurture difference.” I am grateful that you are helping SLPs and graduate students learn through your story, your podcast, your guest lectures for students, your We Stutter @ Work initiatives, your keynote speeches, and more! You are teaching us to “listen with open ears and heart!” Much love you you, friend!

    • Oh, thank you for these wonderful words. Never in a million years could I have ever seen myself being open and loud about stuttering. My world has been so enriched by the people I’ve met (including you, friend) and the journey itself. I hope and wish that younger people who stutter find their way more quickly than I did.

      Pam

  6. Hello Pamela, I just love your poem You just express how many of us feel, so clearly and with such empathy. You are truly such an inspiration. And I agree a poetry group or something would be really nice.

    • Thank you so much Phyllis! I am glad you stopped by to read and reflect on it.

      Maybe next year we can emphasize more strongly that the creative category for the ISAD conference can and should include more poetry.

      Pam

  7. Hi Pamela,

    What a wonderful and impactful poem you have written. I never thought about how much pressure there is to perform during a speaking task game. Your poem shed some light about how stuttering is not the same for everyone including the experience and the type of fluency/disfluency occurred. Your comment of “everyone one of us has a “thing” rings very true. While some people have explicit disorders or disabilities most have implicit disorders. This emphasizes the human experience. We are all dealing with something and having open ears and a heart will help calm the human experience and make it more bearable.

    Thank you,
    Tori

    • Thank you Tori for your thoughtful comments. I really like your line:

      “We are all dealing with something and having open ears and a heart will help calm the human experience and make it more bearable.”

      I am all for anything that helps calm the human experience.

      Pam

  8. Hello Pamela,
    Thank you so much for creating this beautiful poem! I think that this gives such a good look at that stuttering is truly different for everyone. I loved the line “listen with open ears and hearts”! This is such a cool an creative way to look at what others should do when communicating with people who stutter.
    Thank you again for sharing this,
    Madalyn

  9. Hi Pamela,
    Your poem is amazing. I love how you mention “people want different things”, you indicate how this may be relationships with others who stutter or therapy. I had never really thought about this aspect of stuttering before reading your poem. I’ve come to learn how each person who stutters is unique in regards to many things, but I had not thought about how each person may want something different! I can also imagine how a person’s wants and needs in regards to their stutter could fluctuate and change as they go through new life experiences. In that sense, what somebody wants today may be completely different than what they want in 2 years! As an SLP graduate student, your poem really opened my eyes and has given me some really valuable insight into what people who stutter may experience. Thank you so much for sharing!
    Katrina

    • Thank you Katrina for reading and sharing such a thoughtful comment.
      Good luck on your journey towards becoming a speech therapist. I hope this ISAD conference has helped you better understand stuttering.

      Pam

  10. Hi Pam,

    Your poem resonated with me and was very insightful! The imagery of your words is powerful, especially when you said “Stuttering is hard, it can tire us out”. I can see that having multiple meanings from the emotional to the physical. I also really appreciated the theme of pride throughout the poem and the humor at the end. Thank you for sharing this beautiful poem!
    Courtney

    • Hi Courtney,
      Thanks for reading and for leaving such a great comment.
      I wasn’t sure if anyone had noticed my lame attempt at humor at the end, but you did!
      Thank you.

      Pam

  11. Hi Pam

    Thanks for your beautiful poem. Yes we all have a thing. Some PWS think life would be perfect if we wouldn’t stutter. But look at fluenters. Are they happy, healthy, leading the perfect lives? Sure, stuttering is not what we’d wish for, but if we wouldn’t stutter we’d probably have other issues we’re not that happy with. If we would all speak up and share our thing, we’d realize we’re not alone and might have so many things in common. There are so many people who feel so alone with their thing, while that might just be the thing that connects us.

    I hope you’ll put your poems together. Maybe one day they’ll turn into a book. <3

    Happy ISAD and thanks for all you mean to me and so many others

    Anita

    • Thank you Anita for your kind comments. I don’t think there will be a poetry book anytime in my future, but I’ve been giving more and more thought to maybe a book/memoir. I have had a lot of people ask me about doing that, over the years, and more so in the last year or so.
      I’m not sure I have the energy but I do have the time, so I will let that slink around in my brain for a while.

      Thank YOU for all the work you have done to get this ISAD conference uploaded and active.
      You are such a gift to the stuttering community and to those who need to better understand stuttering.

      Pam

  12. Hi Pamela,

    Thank you so much for sharing this beautiful poem with us! I am currently a graduate student studying to become a speech language pathologist and your line “people want different things” really resonated with me. I think it’s easy, especially as a new provider, to want to hit treatment heavily but we need to take a step back and consider what is best for our patients, and what they truly want. Thank you!

    • Hi Claire,
      I truly hope that’s the route you go with therapy for people who stutter. It should never be an issue where the SLP aims for “hitting treatment heavily” until you know for sure what the client wants and needs. There has to be a therapeutic alliance between the person who stutters and a therapist working with them. Goals should be mutually derived and should be relevant to the person’s life.

      I’ll never forget the short time I spent in therapy in my early 40’s. I attended a college program’s fluency clinic and had graduate student clinicians working with me. Three different students started the trimester off with me reading something called “The Rainbow Passage” which was child-like and silly and made me feel infantilized. It was made worse when the student sat across from me counting off the percentage of stutters she heard on a checklist. I hated that so much. When I was readying for yet another student to do the same thing, I insisted on choosing an adult suited article AND had the student record the session and she could go and listen and count stuttered syllables on her own without me right in front of her.

      That was very empowering for me. Hope this is something you might consider with adult clients.

      Pam

  13. Hi Pam!

    I appreciate your poem! Your interpretation of the theme resonated with me. You stated that one size does not fit all in anything, which is very important to remember. I am an SLP graduate student, and I hope to take this approach into my clinical practice by providing holistic, person-centered, and accepting therapy. Thanks again!

    Em

    • Hi Em,

      Thanks for reading my poem and for the thoughtful comment.
      Best of luck on your journey towards becoming a speech therapist.

      Pam

  14. Hi Pam,
    I enjoyed reading your poem. I am currently taking a graduate course in fluency and have appreciated learning about stuttering acceptance. As a future SLP it is important to understand that all PWS are not the same, nor do they have the same goals related to their stutter. You have captured the diverse nature of stuttering amazingly in your poem. Each individual defines success in communication differently. Seeking support, using strategies, advocating, and self-acceptance looks different for everyone. Thank you for sharing.

    K Rhodes.

    • Hi K Rhodes,

      Thanks for reading and commenting on my poem. Good luck on your SLP journey.

      Pam

  15. Hi Pamela,

    This is the first time I’ve seen poetry illustrating the experience of a person who stutters. From reading the comments it seems you’ve also helped me uncover a whole new world of poetry. Thank you for sharing your experience and providing resources to further my education on the personal experiences of people who stutter.

  16. Hello,

    This was a wonderful poem showing perspectives from people who stutter. I work as an SLPA and I think this would be nice to share with some of my students who are currently working on writing their own poetry and personal narratives. The line about assumptions is one that will stick with me. Thanks for sharing!

  17. Hi there,

    I hope you do share with some of your students. Thanks for reading and commenting.

    Pam