Empowering young inmates to write new chapters in their lives.
By TTB
The worst pain I’ve ever felt
was looking at you, reach for me
through a video screen and I couldn’t
touch you; right then, I knew
what it felt like to die, a living
death—
A poem from a father to his youngest son.
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February 26, 2020, 7:00 – 8:30 PM
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Free Minds uses books, creative writing, and peer support to awaken incarcerated and formerly incarcerated youths and adults to their own potential. Through creative expression, job readiness training, and violence prevention outreach, these poets achieve their education and career goals, and become powerful voices for change in the community.
Winner of the 2015 Aspen Ideas Award from the Aspen Institute, the Justice Potter Stewart Award from the Council for Court Excellence, and the Library of Congress Best Practices in Literacy Award.
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Such a tragic moment. Feel for you.
A living death- powerful last line! You may want to delete the comma before “reach.”
Your poem jumps out on the page, I like the way it is structured. It is a heavy reminder of missing loved ones in a technology driven world. In such a short time, you are able to transmit a large story that keeps the reader thinking long beyond the words have ended.
Your poem is barely six lines, but it leaves a powerful impression and reflects a deep vulnerability. A suggestion to take it to the next level is to write the first 3 lines with more color. Maybe focus on the numbness of the video screen or the wide eyes of your son.
TTB – This is a beautifully composed poem; it is also heart-wrenching. I especially appreciate how spare the verse is. Every word is necessary, every word rings true. Please keep writing.
This poem is heartbreaking which I mean as a sincere compliment. In a single little slice it captures that moment, that single fleeting human gesture that just tears you heart to shreds when it cannot be fulfilled. It doesn’t add any unnecessary extra details and just presents the moment and the split second reaction to it which makes it all the more powerful.