This poem is written to and for persons of color, your family and friends, in response to expressions of persistent pain and suffering you experience due to racial injustice. In the Book of Philippians, Paul and Timothy write, “I hold you in my heart,” to the believers in Philippi. Believers who at least symbolically, were among those Paul had previously persecuted, even unto death. This poem is loosely patterned after that prayer. Philippians 1:1-7
Hold you in my heart
I hold you in my heart
reaching out blood-tinged hands
across the barriers of history
to gather broken pieces of your soul
out of the ashes.
I don’t presume to
‘put you back together’
but to hold your story
as the sacred missive it is,
and lean with you toward
One Who Can Heal.
I hold you in my heart
defenses momentarily unlaced
by a glimpse – mere glimpse
of your suffering,
the color of your blood
draining ochre into the soil
on which we now stand.
Stand?
Nay, walk…
for this is a journey;
wretched soil for all of us
to leave behind.
I hold you in my heart
examining the color of mine
to ask where it might celebrate—yours.
wake late to the dream
birthed out of your nightmare;
that the passages that carried you through the night to freedom
might tunnel through the dark once more
bring me to your door
in a fellowship of love, art
music, work, laughter
and the overarching grace of Christ’s righteousness.
I hold you in my heart
(it takes such a long while to quiet its thunderous beating)
I purpose to wait;
to not simply acquiesce
in verbal acknowledgement of complicity,
but to wrestle with the discomfort
until I can hear the faint, strengthening beat
of life’s muscle in your chest.
This is a labor of love.
I hold you in my heart
Your freedom is not for sale
Truth is, one cannot buy, nor sell, freedom;
Our freedom was purchased
before black or white or red ever set foot on this shore.
But I would like to scour stains
of what it has cost to realize your freedom,
by the washing of your feet;
pour the oil of joy instead of mourning
into the fissures in your soles
that black feet might dance once more.
I hold you in my heart
jfig 6/2020
jfig 6/2020
The journey to acknowledge white privilege has been messy for me. If it were not for confidence in the grace which Paul describes, I doubt I could engage the difficult questions. #stillonjourney
Scripture reference is Philippians 1:1-7 Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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