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  • GET INVOLVED
    • Join Our Email List
    • Bring Free Minds to Your Group
    • On the Same Page: Write Night
    • Intern or Volunteer With Us
    • Give Poetry Feedback
    • Work With Us
  • DONATE
    • Donate Online
    • Other Ways to Donate
    • Employer Matching Gifts
    • Donate Books
    • New! Merch Store
  • About Us
    • Mission & Vision
    • Who We Are
    • In The Press
    • Supporters
    • National Projects
    • Resources For Educators
    • Resources For Incarcerated People
    • New! Merch Store
    • Contact Us
  • Our Work
    • Book Clubs and Writing Workshops
    • Reentry Services
    • On the Same Page
    • Books by Free Minds
    • Connect Magazine
    • Congressman John Lewis Fellowship
    • Thrive Under 25
    • Success Stories
  • News & Events
  • Poems
  • Contact Us

This One’s For You

This One’s For You

By Free Minds Book Club | August 10, 2018 | 3

By DM Grandma, you nourish and protect me From day one, I remember people thinking, I was your child, and not your grandson. As I got older, you were always…

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Untitled (for Amy Winehouse)

By Free Minds Book Club | July 23, 2018 | 5

By AC You are selfish, inconsiderate, reckless. Who gave you the right? To darken peoples’ life-lights And put tears in their eyes. I guess you never did stop to think…

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Some Day I’m Gonna

By Free Minds Book Club | July 18, 2018 | 14

By TG Someday I’m gonna learn new things. How to play the piano and how to sing. Someday I’m gonna write a book or a love song with a jazzy…

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Out of Sight, Out of Mind

By Free Minds Book Club | July 13, 2018 | 6

By RBS I’m locked in this cell, I can’t stop pacin’. A prisoner of my own thoughts, That’s why my head keeps achin’. My nerves real bad, I sit down,…

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How to Bring About Peace in 10 Steps

By Free Minds Book Club | July 5, 2018 | 8

By AL After “How to Make a Cardboard Box Disappear in 10 Steps” by Clint Smith 1. Add in 1 lb of Dignity 2. Pour in 2 tbsp of Integrity…

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About the Poetry Blog

The poets featured on this page are currently incarcerated, and many of them are in federal prisons far from home. Your feedback is a valuable source of motivation and connection to the outside community. Post your comments, feedback, and encouragement in the space below the poem, and it will be passed on directly to the author. Comments may not appear immediately on the site, as our team processes them to mail to the poets.

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Upcoming Events

On the Same Page: Write Night

January 27, 2021, 7:00 – 8:30 PM

Read and respond to poetry by incarcerated writers! Registration is required; click here to RSVP.

Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop

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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mail@freemindsbookclub.org

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