My Alphabet To Freedom* – Pamela Sackett

Words can hurt
words
words can heal
sure as I stand here, sure as I breathe
oh words can hurt
words
words can heal

how do you know when to keep or refuse them
I learned how to peruse them as a guide to how I feel
words can reveal the parts
the parts some words conceal
how do we define them
how do we align to them

words can hurt
words
words can heal
sure as I stand here, sure as I breathe

words I use are words
words I choose

or did they choose me when I first learned to think
were they strung together to steer my boat
or tangled up to make me sink

words taught me to hide from parts of myself
drowning deep inside
sure as my teachers were unwitting creatures
sure as their vocabulary made drowning customary

words can hurt
words
words can heal
sure as I stand here
sure as I breathe

now I question words
and take them apart
and reassemble them
when I need to find my heart

sure as it is beating
words cradle me
while I am grieving
and spell out the value of
my heart’s full range of feeling

words can help revive
and foster the courage
to be expressly alive

words can hurt
words
words can heal
sure as I stand here
sure as I breathe

words can be free
and words can cost humanity
count each letter consciously
even when you use telepathy

words can hurt
words
words can heal
sure as I stand here
sure as I breathe

*Portions of this recording derivative of a live performance with Pamela & Rainier Valley Unitarian church choir in Seattle, musically arranged for the choir & conducted by Kathleen Tracy.
Pamela Sackett: composition, guitar, vocal
Guy Nelson: sung & spoken vocals
Daniel Sackett: sound sculpture & mixing