Garvin Williams
Whose shattered bones helped you see?This anthology is an ode to the connected nature one has to each other and oneself, and how forgiveness and vulnerability are the linking themes of experiencing freedom from the things deemed difficult.Poetry has always been my way of expressing myself and how I make sense of the world around me. How I felt and the process of reconciling feelings growing up always seemed so foreign to me in many ways; perhaps it was the African man’s first generation in me. A tale as old as time - 'Don’t feel too much,' a polluted view of strength, which I always knew would end with me. Almost as if I was constantly comparing what was felt to an imaginary weight of what was deserving of feelings. Well, I quickly discovered that this is not how emotions work. Feelings, like people - perhaps poetry - need ample space to breathe, regardless of where they originate.I titled this anthology 'The Sweetest Foundation of the Shattered Bones' because it celebrates where I come from: the good, the bad, and the heart-wrenching moments of loss and redemption, and perhaps hope that I once believed could not call my life home. The reality is that our foundation comes from the loss and unmerited brokenness of others. Our foundation can be described as sweet, connecting us to the sacrificial love it embodies - whether we choose to acknowledge it as such.In many ways, this anthology is also a love letter to my parents. It took a long time, and many poems later, to come to a place where this void, regret, and deep lament were realized as a misplaced love that grew callused. But one layer at a time, one step at a time, one word at a time, I released the pieces and started again - reconciling pain then and now, and the stepping stones of learning what unconditional love is through the lens of hurt and hope. Poems about the warrior mother who raised me the best she knew how, and opened avenues to forgiving my 17-year-old self when grief wore its hat. To the new lens of evolved forgiveness, redemption, and pride I have for my father, which required a deep reflection of seeing who he was entirely. Both of them, everything mixed together, have shaped me. My parents were far from perfect, but what courage it took to love, to start over in unfamiliar places, to never give up, is the foundation that brings peace like no other.To them I now say: thank you for choosing me; I will choose you ten times over.To the reader, I hope that when you finish this anthology, you will be reminded that when all is said and done, you will think back to the times when resiliency, unconditional love, and forgiveness called your name - and you were brave enough to look at the past and the unknown in the eye and decide that it will not devour you. It never had the authority to.
