A WAIL MADE HOLY
An offering to Black women vocalists/ musicians who stretched sound into spirit, too often unheard but always present.
wail like Linda Sharrock
like a throat made of gravel and gospel
like something holy
breaking its own bones
just to be heard
summon like Jeanne Lee
like rust scraping the edge of a hymn
like language
turning into ash
mid-sentence
pray like Amina Claudine Myers
like a temple cracking
under the weight of breath
like thunder stitched
with centuries of dust
press like Mary Lou Williams
like coal pressed into pattern
beneath the soles
like Black girlhood
weaving grief into geometry
testify like Abbey Lincoln
like a shout
rising from body and sea
like a wound
pulsing beneath lace gloves
come
not to sing,
but to listen
as if every breath is scripture
trace their sound
through the marrow of your days
gather their echoes
like bones in an ossuary
cradle the tremble,
the rupture
the breath
carry it all
like coal
in your pockets
be a quiet witness
to their
wail
still learning how to hold
what can’t be held
⫷ ✶ 𓆸 ⟁ ✶ ⫸
before it was a poem
it was a sound
hear them
their wails live below
a short curated playlist
of Wails Made Holy
My favorite genre of music to listen to and sing is “women screaming/yelling on the track”, so I really felt this
This is powerful, thank you for sharing