Posts Tagged ‘Poetry’
Poetry from New Jersey State Prison
Journalist Kal Wagenheim, editor of Inside Out: Voices From New Jersey State Prison, talks on the radio about teaching writing in a maximum security prison, and why the state’s department of corrections doesn’t want the inmates to have his book.
Read more about Wagenheim’s work here.
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Incarceration Nation
Punishment
is the most potent stimulus
of violence
nothing corrodes the soul
as thoroughly as
vengeance.
(p.25, Hartnett)
Stephen John Hartnett, poet, musician, and prison activist, presents a collection of prison poems in varying tones and subjects in Incarceration Nation: Investigative Prison Poems of Hope and Terror. It is available for purchase on Amazon. Some excerpts are available to read for free on Google Books.
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The World of the Forgotten
My house is one of heartache
A place of steel and stone
A barren cell, a home in hell
And here I stand, alone
And when I rage and pace my cage
That no man wants to own
My body aches with frozen stakes
That chill me to the bone
I hear them sling their giant keys
And crank the iron locks
The scrape of feet upon concrete
The guards patrol the blocks
Convicts’ knives take human lives
No jungle holds more danger
And each new day that comes my way
Each man remains a stranger
I watch my back ’cause there’s a lack
Of men who can be trusted
And through the haze there comes a rage
Toward the rat that got me busted.
They came today and took away
The man that lived next door
To end his strife, he took his life
He couldn’t take no more.
It’s quiet here upon the tier
Since Death has claimed a brother
Now each of us are wondering:
Who might be another?
-Brian Johnsen #300937, 1115 H. St., Modesto, CA 95354
You can read more prison poetry online.
Posted by hcdmedia
Third World Voices
To America and Your Comrades,
Yes I am dying!
For the same causes and ills that
My ancestors
My grandparents
My parents
My brothers
My sisters
My children
My friends Have died!
So that you could have the
luxury of mustard on your hotdog!
-Allen B. Williams, C-09851 P.O. Box 7500, PBSP
Crescent City, CA 95531
You can read more prison poetry online.
Posted by hcdmedia
Prison Poets
Here is a list of poems written by over 30 inmates currently serving time. Some of the poems and poets previously appeared in Poems From The Dane County Jail, in 1997 by Judy Washbush.
Take a look at the poetry here….
Posted by hcdmedia
On Aging
On Aging
Is aging necessary
Must we die
Cells live forever
Why not I.
Protons and neutrons
Do not grow old
Nor does electricity or gravity
So I’ve been told.
Our DNA never changes
Even after 600 million years
That’s almost forever
As in my book it appears.
So live on old man
And avoid all accidents
Get as old as you can
And avoid stress in the can.
Live for the day
You can die tomorrow
But tomorrow never comes
So we avoid death’s sorrow.
-Hans Jensen, inmate
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Voices of Guantanamo gathered in poetry book
Marc Falkoff, an assistant law professor at Northern Illinois University, collected series of poems from the prisoners of Guantanamo after their release, and has created a book composed of their voices.
Some of the poems were scratched onto walls of the prison, but many remembered their own work by heart in the fear that they would be wrongfully regarded as terrorist codes.
Read more of the story here.
Posted by hcdmedia
For Now
FOR NOW
by James Miller
Once again
I awaken
In a Heavy blanket
Of sadness.
For now,
I live
My life
In letters,
Books & Dreams.
In this cell
Sadness, slow anxiety,
Sheets of rain,
Blankets of pain,
Creeping sane,
But blue
And weary
And true
In a false-seeming
Reality
Imposed against will upon
A sensitive Man
Who just wants to Love
In this World.
But sometimes the World
Has other plans.
So I survive
Until I can thrive
That’s what
Flowers do.
4/24/04, written on day 26 of 57 days in the hole—solitary confinement
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From Prison to Poetry
R. Dwayne Betts, arrested for armed robbery and released in 2005, is now spending time creating poetry and organizing a nonprofit group that teaches public school students poetry. After graduating from Howard University, Betts is now writing his own memoir, composed mostly by his journal entries he wrote during his time in prison that helped him to cope with surrounding violence. Read more about his initiative here.
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Youth UpRising – Poetry and Prison Project
Youth Uprising’s Poetry and Prison Project is a youth-led citizen journalism effort that uses poetry to speak about the effects of mass incarceration on young people in urban America. The project’s multimedia study, Poetry and Prison features videos of program participants reading their original poems and discussing how writing poetry impacts their lives.
Posted by hcdmedia