Lyric
Lyric
By Sharon Kimberly Williams
sweet syntax
woven into worlds
crafting the matters of the
heart and mind and soul and Spirit
into a captive secret
like a tapestry of language
spoken solo by the muse
your words seal us
simultaneously
into uncertainty and safety
like a familiar melody
harkening to a distant refrain
your truth gives sound as a
blessedness assuredness
you birth stories into
sacredness
you deliver us from
forgottenness
of time stolen
by teaching us survival
we are rescued
from the hand
of oppression
domination, dominion
imagine those
same words, different woman
same words, different man
how do you write our lives
so varied
so eloquently
yet tragically and then
deliver us
into the hidden
beauty
of forgotten places
near ancient shores
we try to keep pace with
your rhythm in time
to restore our memory
of precious things
carelessly forgotten
we keep pace because
you imagine better
I am lost
inside the melody
I am found
inside the wound
we keep pace because
you alone make life
beautiful
About the Poem:
“This poem is a tribute to the lyrical aesthetic. It is about how the lyric helps us to remember the range and depths of beauty as we move along life’s journey from places of pain to spaces of love. It’s about a life surrendered to the raw power of the lyric in the name of redistributive justice. I was working with a global health advocacy group this spring around the time when this poem was written. We were discussing how to treat cancer patients who lacked access to adequate health care. In response to the many personal testimonies from cancer survivors, I thought about how words heal. As a songstress and a poet, lyrics are the heart of my artistry and it is my desire to heal the world with lyrics as part of my advocacy work. This is why my work must begin with an offering of my life fully surrendered to the lyric. Lyrics are catalysts for change—lyrics are catalysts for healing.”
Sharon Kimberly Williams is an arts and letters doctoral candidate in The Caspersen Graduate School of Drew University where she is pursuing a joint degree with the Drew Theological School in the Studies in Religion and the Fine Arts. Her research interests include Spirituality and Healing in the Arts and Music Therapy in Biblical Antiquity. The themes of pain, love, beauty, and lament that occur in her writing are based on her studies in the fields of music and theology, Africana poetics, and Hebrew poetry. Sharon has performed music and poetry all around the world. Currently, she is working on publishing her first collection of poetry entitled, Breath|Voice|Fire. Sharon serves as a contributor to Harvard Medical School’s Global Health Catalyst, an initiative that advocates for eliminating global health disparities. She resides in Madison, New Jersey.