Welcome to the Fort
By RW
Let me tell you about a place I know
Filled with broken dreams and lost hope
A place if visited within your dreams
Would turn nightmarish by thoughts provoked
A place created many years ago
When a father was taken from the only child he knew
Now he’s stuck in memories as time goes on
Trapped in a world where thoughts never move
A place you need to see in order to believe
Filled with desperate cries and dreamy screams
A city where angels turn dark and cold
Now demons plundering for the hope of lost souls
A place where children are stripped of their youth
Left alone with no direction and confused
As time ticks forward, away from their past
They run backwards towards a time they never had
A fortress built to captivate souls
Whose burden on society was way overbearing
Within it, worlds residing in a timeless space
Humanity has chosen to ignore
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The poets featured here 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. Messages 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.
This one caught my eye because it was something you couldn’t only read, but feel.
You get a slight glimpse of the suffering, but many will never understand. So instead you feel the sympathy for those going through this, for those living this reality.
Very nice RW!
Beautiful, heartfelt poem…an urgent call for reforming our criminal justice system. You have been heard, RW. Thanks for sharing,
Dear RW,
You brought such strong, dark, heart-wrenching imagery to this poem. I found the first stanza to be particularly powerful, and it did an excellent job of setting the tone for the rest of the piece. Please continue to share your experiences through writing.
This was an incredibly powerful and moving poem! It’s clear that you have a coherent understanding of what incarcerated people go through. This insight provides for a clear and strong message through your use of words. I also just wanted to say that “A place where children are stripped of their youth” was very compelling for the message you are trying to get across about incarceration.
Dear RW, this poem is filled with so much emotion and sadness. Every line is so descriptive and I can picture everything you describe. I especially love the line: “a fortress built to captivate souls”. It’s beautiful and thank you so much for sharing your work.
This poem is beautifully written but also conveys a very powerful message about the flaws in the prison system. My favorite line is “Filled with desperate cries and dreamy screams” because the alliteration and rhyming make for an image that really stands out in my mind. I hope you will continue to share more of your poetry in the future.
Thank you for writing this work. The part that resonated the most with me was “a place where children are stripped of their youth”. The prison system instead of giving children a chance to right their wrongs, condemns them to a perpetual wrong.
RW,
I admire the images you create through your word choice. Referring to a fortress and dark, cold rooms conveys your overall meaning. I encourage you to find the light and the warmth among this fortress. You have a voice; continue to use it. We hear you.
KC
This was a very passionate poem that you made. It is so deep and enchanting that you just cannot stop reading! Keep up the good work!!
RW,
The images you create are powerful! I can feel the solitude in your words. I admire how you use your gift of writing to connect with others and share your experience. You emphasize the failures of our society. Keep writing; we hear you!
KC
Thank you so much for sharing your poem. I enjoyed every single line, and they each filled me with so much emotion. It is really sad the world we live in, but all we can do is believe in our future.
The powerful imagery that you used in your poem really make me understand the dehumanization of the prison system, even though I have never experienced it myself, and that is truly a success of an artist: to make others feel a feeling they have never experienced. Thank you for making me aware of it, and keep up the good work!
Dear RW,
I really liked the way you structured the verses in the poem and worked with a rhyme scheme while still conveying such a powerful message. I particularly liked the last stanza, where the speaker describes, “worlds residing in a timeless space.” For me, it highlighted the way that, while there is a lot of grief in this timeless place, there are “worlds” there, which I interpreted as saying that there is also a lot of value and many rich stories there. I really appreciate you sharing a piece of that world and expressing it so beautifully.
Best,
JM
RW,
This poem makes it so evident that it is time to reform our criminal justice system. This was beautifully written and you have millions of people across the country who couldn’t agree with you more! Thank you so much for sharing your frustrations and expressing yourself. Keep writing.
Dear RW,
Your poem caught my eye because of the word fort, and what first came to mind is the blanket forts I made when I was younger. I that it comes from the word fortress, which is what you mean when using fort, and that does not bring to mind happy thoughts. It was a very masterful use of words to change the connotation of fort in the title and I appreciated it very much.
Danielle
Hi RW,
The fort does a truly heartfelt job explaining trauma and its effects on a young person. These wounds take years to heal and I hope your poetry is helping you process your pain. I wish you good luck and I’m sending lots of love 🙂
RW,
I really liked the line where you said: “as time ticks forward, away from their past
They run backwards towards a time they never had.” That is a really strong, impactful line. I love how it flows and come together! I appreciate how open you are in this poem, so thank you!
Best,
Samantha
RW – This poem focuses less on telling a story and more on painting a picture. The image that you bring forth is powerful, ominous, and chaotic. As a reader, I wonder, what’s your relationship with the fort? I assume you are inside it as you write it. Were you one of the youths who lost their youth there or is that something you are observing? To what extent are your grieving for your own loss and how much for others?
Dear RW,
Thank you for this wrenching, atmospheric poem. I was so taken with all the references to time in your poem. There’s a way that cycles of grief – a lost father, lost pasts – seem to have broken time here, so that it runs in a circle or never progresses, a “timeless space.” Reading your poem, I envisioned an endless night, misty, impossible to navigate, a nightmare place. I hope that you find your way out and through. May you find a time that moves toward something again.
Gratefully,
Heather