Williams' lyrical, fluid writing bring little-known stories to our attention, and what compelling stories these are. Anna Reisman, Yale (University) School of Medicine

Karen S. Williams, believes that poetry is an enlightening and healing social justice tool, one that can move its readers and hearers to help eradicate the taint of the slave health deficit, health disparities experienced by blacks due to years of explicit and implicit exposure to racism, discrimination, despair, cynicism, contempt, poverty, negative scientific and popular culture representations of them.

She agrees with poet Eli Siegel when he said: “When a person has contempt, he or she is cold to the feelings of other people. This is the beginning of all injustice, in personal lives and on a massive international scale.” She hopes that her debut collection of poetry Elegy for a Scarred Shoulder will increase individual and corporate compassion and collaborations to help correct that.

At once raw, stunning, and hard-hitting Elegy for a Scarred Shoulder, thoroughly grounded in historical context and moving medical research, features 42 poems based on the true stories of famous historical incidents, and figures such as African-American clergymen, Richard Allen and Absalom Jones; noted physician and blood transfusion researcher, Dr. Charles Drew; athlete and entrepreneur, Ervin "Magic" Johnson; and neurosurgeon, Dr. Benjamin Carson, among others.

Heather Buchanan-Gueringer, author and publisher of Aquarius Press, says that Elegy...is a must-have book that helps leaders in America's educational, health and medical, faith, political, and artistic communities, among others, introduce or reintroduce delicate issues of race, health and inequity, and their impact on African-Americans to their constituents.

"Williams' lyrical, fluid writing bring little-known stories to our attention, and what compelling stories these are. These poems go beyond evoking emotion and expose us to a different perspective on medical history..." notes Anna Reisman, MD, Deputy Editor of Creative Writing and Book Reviews, Journal of General Internal Medicine, Assistant Professor, Yale (University) School of Medicine.

"In Elegy for a Scarred Shoulder, Williams commits not only to the reclamation of the Black body, but also, to literary excellence through skillfully crafted elegies, epistle's and poetic verse, stimulating the imagined into the real, transferring witness into historicity. She is a bard whose lyric delivers potent poetic narrative. Here is a poet of exceptional talent," praises Randall Horton, author of The Definition of Place (Main Street Rag Press) and a Cave Canem Fellow.

ISBN: 978-0-9718214-3-9
Publisher: Willow Books
Price: $14.95