Amazin’ Grace
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the publication of Affrilachia, the landmark first collection of poems from former Kentucky Poet Laureate Frank X Walker. From that book came this poem, Walker's meditation on John Newton, the former slave-ship captain who wrote the hymn "Amazing Grace." (With a new reading by the author.)
Frank X Walker | Affrilachia Poem | Story Behind Amazing Grace
Listen to this poem: 1:53 min | read by the author
Amazing grace! how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind, but now I see . . .
It isn’t negro
but it is spiritual
it do speak to the power
of redemption
to power period
converting lost
to found
creating sight
where there was none
but what sound could be
so powerfully sweet
sweet enough
to turn a wretched
slave-ship captain into england’s most outspoken
abolitionist and songwriter
was it the splash of bodies
dragged kicking and screaming
jettisoned off decks
to the outstretched arms
of ocean coral
was it the crack of the whip
or the popping sound bloody flesh makes
when a sizzling branding iron
breaks the skin
the sound of fear and confusion
below deck
muffled by the sound of rape up above
the sound of 609 beating hearts
sardined into a space for 300
amazing is to be lost and blind
and still the captain
a willing participant
in crimes against humanity
but what was that sound
that liberating release
granting pardons
for penitence undone?
what does forgiveness sound like?
Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come . . .
now every time you hear amazing grace
listen for john newton’s apology
his silent sobs seeking salvation
listen and hear
what healing sounds like
’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home
