Gabriel City » Poetry http://gabrielcity.com Gabriel City is a community for the tens of millions of Americans directly affected by our criminal justice system. We come together to share our stories and help to shape new ones. Inmates and the formerly incarcerated, family members of those serving time, men and women under community supervision, professionals in criminal justice and corrections, and the victims of crime; we support and respect each other as we work to break the endless cycle of crime and incarceration that afflicts our nation. Wed, 06 Jul 2011 19:18:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Poetry from New Jersey State Prison http://gabrielcity.com/video/poetry-from-new-jersey-state-prison.html http://gabrielcity.com/video/poetry-from-new-jersey-state-prison.html#comments Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:40:01 +0000 hcdmedia http://gabrielcity.com/?p=1460 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.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Read more about Wagenheim’s work here.

]]> http://gabrielcity.com/video/poetry-from-new-jersey-state-prison.html/feed 0 Incarceration Nation http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/incarceration-nation.html http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/incarceration-nation.html#comments Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:32:38 +0000 hcdmedia http://gabrielcity.com/?p=1893 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.

]]> http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/incarceration-nation.html/feed 0 The World of the Forgotten http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/the-world-of-the-forgotten.html http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/the-world-of-the-forgotten.html#comments Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:20:51 +0000 hcdmedia http://gabrielcity.com/?p=1665 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.

]]> http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/the-world-of-the-forgotten.html/feed 0 Third World Voices http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/third-world-voices.html http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/third-world-voices.html#comments Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:23:39 +0000 hcdmedia http://gabrielcity.com/?p=1655 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.

]]> http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/third-world-voices.html/feed 0 Prison Poets http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/prison-poets.html http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/prison-poets.html#comments Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:54:22 +0000 hcdmedia http://gabrielcity.com/?p=1423 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….

]]> http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/prison-poets.html/feed 0 On Aging http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/on-aging.html http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/on-aging.html#comments Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:17:19 +0000 hcdmedia http://gabrielcity.com/?p=1389 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

]]> http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/on-aging.html/feed 0 Voices of Guantanamo gathered in poetry book http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/voices-of-guantanamo-gathered-in-poetry-book.html http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/voices-of-guantanamo-gathered-in-poetry-book.html#comments Sun, 23 Aug 2009 13:31:51 +0000 hcdmedia http://gabrielcity.com/?p=1431 guantanamo-book-cp-3177373Marc 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.

]]> http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/voices-of-guantanamo-gathered-in-poetry-book.html/feed 0 For Now http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/for-now.html http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/for-now.html#comments Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:13:10 +0000 hcdmedia http://gabrielcity.com/?p=1392 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

]]> http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/for-now.html/feed 0 From Prison to Poetry http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/from-prison-to-poetry.html http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/from-prison-to-poetry.html#comments Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:09:40 +0000 hcdmedia http://gabrielcity.com/?p=1382 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.

3687309988

]]> http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/from-prison-to-poetry.html/feed 0 Youth UpRising – Poetry and Prison Project http://gabrielcity.com/video/youth-uprising-poetry-and-prison-project.html http://gabrielcity.com/video/youth-uprising-poetry-and-prison-project.html#comments Mon, 25 May 2009 19:08:59 +0000 hcdmedia http://gabrielcity.com/?p=660 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.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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