I know where to go
When I want to feel safe
I go deep in my soul
Find my own sacred place.
—Canaan
Every artist—whatever their medium—has a story to tell and a hunger to share it. So does Richard Hamersma. Given Richard’s “day job” as a psychologist, it’s clear he has a deep concern for, and desire to understand and help, other people.
Of course, the wonder of humanity is that no one can ever know another person completely. As many of Richard’s lyrics observe, the mystery of the human heart can confound even those closest to us. Yet his constant curiosity about what motivates people, inspires them and fulfills them has led Richard to use his writing talent to seek answers to these questions and share that knowledge with music lovers everywhere.
How Richard Writes
Sometimes late at night
When it’s just me and you
I can reach to where you are
Say the things that lover’s do.
—Just Behind Your Eyes
As a poet and novelist, Richard works alone, but he prefers to develop lyrics as part of a collaboration with a composer. Writing in many different genres, he’s had the opportunity to work with a wide range of composers. But the words are always where the creation starts, and he draws his inspiration for his work from many different places. Sometimes it’s a phrase that he can’t get out of his head. Other times it’s a glimpse of an old photograph depicting another time and place. Or perhaps a personal memory that haunts and provokes him until it’s shared.
But whatever prompts Richard’s creative impulse, his lyrics touch on universal themes of longing, regret, joy at shared passion, and wonder at the mysterious quality of love and life. His lyrics are full of insights about lost love and self-empowerment, self-awareness and self-delusion, painful confusion and self-initiated enlightenment.
