Shapes of Courage

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The reunion hall was filled with laughter and voices, faces blending into a buzzing crowd. I stood back, watching, feeling a quiet uncertainty I couldn’t shake, as though my life had slipped off course.

Then, across the room, I saw Sarah—a friend whose calm strength I’d long admired. Her presence here was unexpected, and she seemed unchanged, moving through the crowd at her own steady pace. Sarah had always faced life’s challenges with quiet resilience, never asking for attention or applause, just pressing forward, true to her values. Her courage, I realized, was a kind that didn’t need to be seen to be real.

As I watched her, I started to rethink what courage looked like. It wasn’t just in bold actions or grand gestures. Sometimes, it was in a steady step or a calm presence, in staying true to oneself even when no one else noticed. Sarah’s quiet persistence showed me that courage could exist without needing an audience.

Feeling inspired, I wrote a poem about this kind of strength:

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Shapes of Courage
By Kerry A. Wiley

Bravery wears no single form—
it’s shapeless, shifting, thin.
It is found in steps we cannot see,
in battles kept within.

Strength can live in stillness, too,
not only in the fight;
it moves beneath what others know,
not always bound to sight.

For some, it’s speaking through the noise,
for others, silence held—
courage wears its secret face,
in voices never quelled.

Sometimes it’s holding to the ground,
sometimes letting go,
sometimes naming shadows there
and truths we cannot show.

It can mean refusing walls,
or making peace with them—
or bending in the quiet dark,
or finding light again.

It’s woven in the way we move,
in whispers, waves, and tides—
bravery the quiet pulse
that settles deep inside.

So here’s to strength that wears no name,
that breaks or lets us be,
a courage that remakes itself,
untethered, wild, and free.

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Until then, I’d thought of courage as something bold and unmistakable, something you couldn’t miss. But watching Sarah, I saw courage could also be quieter, private, but no less powerful. I realized that courage could be as soft as it was strong.

This moment inspired Shapes of Courage. I wanted to honor a kind of bravery that doesn’t draw attention—a quiet resilience that carries people through their everyday struggles. In the poem, I tried to reflect how courage isn’t just a bold act but can also be a quiet, lasting strength.

Lines like “shapeless, shifting, thin… found in steps we cannot see, in battles kept within” were written for people like Sarah. Disability scholars like Clare (2020) and Wendell (2019) remind us that courage isn’t always about grand gestures; for many, it’s the small choices to keep going, even when no one notices.

When I wrote “strength can live in stillness, too, not only in the fight,” I wanted to capture this quieter form of resilience. Siebers (2018) describes this hidden strength, often missed because it doesn’t fit traditional images of bravery. Sometimes, though, courage is simply staying steady, a persistence that deserves to be honored.

In Shapes of Courage, I wanted to explore how we face limits and live with them. Goodley (2017) suggests resilience isn’t about overcoming every obstacle; it’s about learning to live alongside them. Shakespeare (2018) writes of resilience as a balance between holding on and letting go. My poem pays tribute to this kind of strength, courage that adapts and meets us where we are.

In the final lines, “strength that wears no name” refers to courage beyond recognition. Siebers (2018) notes that the courage tied to disability often goes unrecognized because it doesn’t fit the usual idea of bravery. Yet this hidden courage matters; it exists without needing an audience.

Writing Shapes of Courage changed how I understand courage. Disability research encourages us to look beyond visible acts of resilience and recognize the strength found in everyday, quiet decisions (Goodley, 2017; Clare, 2020; Siebers, 2018). Through this piece, I hope to honor that quiet, unbreakable courage that shapes lives, even when it passes unseen or unnoticed through a crowded room.

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References

• Clare, E. (2020). Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure. Duke University Press.
• Goodley, D. (2017). Disability Studies: An Interdisciplinary Introduction. Sage Publications.
• Shakespeare, T. (2018). Disability: The Basics. Routledge.
• Siebers, T. (2018). Disability Theory. University of Michigan Press.
• Wendell, S. (2019). The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability. Routledge.