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. These 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.
Click on the poem title to open it up, and then post your comments, feedback, and encouragement in the space below the poem.
Remember Me in Words
By TT
Paint my portrait in a thousand words,
In every color of my poetry.
Discard every tale you’ve ever heard
Of the perspectives that misrepresent me.
Capture my smiles and frowns
In angled letters of passion…
Full of bold print and pain𑁋
Italics embellishing eternal change.
Paint me opaque.
Remember me in a million ways…
As a nomadic soul
Constantly shifting in a human frame.
Who Me?
By AG
How do I better myself?
Starve off comfortability
To create parity within
To accept my flaws
and be humble in my strengths
To feel relief in my win
A winner of freedom
Free at last
Freed from my past
I’ve been re-moved my mask
Not saying I’m fake
More so removing my ugly
To reveal my beauty
Essence of a man, a changed man
Who articulating a plan
To achieve to believe
I can, and will be a better me
Lessons in Courage and Fear
By TH
This poem was written in response to a writing prompt from the Pongo Poetry Project.
In my life I have known courage–in facing against all odds
Nowadays courage is felt, but seldom seen
I’ve learned courage from trial and error
What courage tells me is you never know how much you have until you need it
Usually I listen to what my heart tells me
I wish more people would show courage against all injustices
Isolation
By AW
Isolation is not good for no one
Isolation is the killer of affection
One against another grows out of
a detachment born of a separation
born from misunderstanding.
Isolation kills our humanity when
imposed as a weapon to punish
to negate, to debase one’s
Humanity.
Like when the rebel yells
toward onward to freedom
and
The slave screams “No” in
the soft and low voice of
one who will no longer be a
good slave to no one
breathing or dead.
So, no to Isolation’s
whip, lashes of mental torture
Emotional Bondage and Mental Chains
Isolation
Is
Death
Free Mumia and all who does not fear
Freedom.
This Pain
By RP
“This Pain”
It’s hard to bear.
So sometimes I wish,
Nobody would care.
Then I could be free,
To give into my deep felt despair.
But, power grows with numbers.
Power from love continues,
To pull me away From sleepy,
Depressive slumbers.
Strengthening my back
To fight for strength to evolve
Around n around Mother Earth,
How this life has found inner resolve
From ignorance’s self fulfilling perceptions
Evolving from my deepest conscious
Self reflections.
Creations of why second guessing
Questions.
Every moving with This Pain
Attempting to locate
Each twisting turn’s
Blessing!
Is This Home?
By JW
Is this prison,
or is this a cage?
Is this anger,
or is this rage?
Is this patience,
or is this delay?
Is this complaining,
or is this pray?
Is this rehabilitation,
or is this captivity?
Is this freedom,
or is this slavery?
Is this order,
or is this a mess?
Is this mental health,
or is this stress?
Is this yearning,
or is this a groan?
Is this temporary?
Or is this home?
What I Want
By TH
I want to be free as a bird in the sky.
I want to become a published author
and pass on a book of advice to my daughter.
I want to be loved and give love
to someone becoming worthy of being called my wife.
I want the federal system to fully acknowledge youthful offenders
incarcerated for offenses committed before their 25th birthday,
just like the IRAA and The Second Look Act already do in D.C.*
I want to travel to Mecca to make Hajj
I want to eat pizza in Rome
I want to drive up the Calfornia coastline in a convertible
I want to speak to the youth to tell them it’s a better way to earn a living
I want to start a non-profit for kids with incarcerated parents.
Last but not least I want to give back more than I take from the world.
*The Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act (IRAA) and the Second Look Amendment Act are DC laws that state that individuals incarcerated for crimes committed when they were under 25 can petition the court for resentencing after 15 years of incarceration
Though I Am Long Dead
By AW
I shall not cry
or be ashamed
of my past
of my failures
of my hurt
nor of my
pain.
I shall smile
Fly and soar
above the scorn
and rejection.
I shall never
die as in these
poems of mine,
like a lover’s
kiss, for a
thousand years
my words shall
reach millions
of ears, hearts, and minds
though I am
long dead.
Freedom
By JS
Freedom is the most beautiful thing
I took for granted,
She was once in my life but then she vanished.
I ended in a cell cold and lonely,
I felt stranded,
feeling like what happened?
Yearning for her return – Please come back.
like a wheel without air – I felt flat.
Seconds and minutes without her touch,
days and weeks and still no luck.
Month after month – they turn to years.
I called your name but you ain’t hear,
how you pop up on me so close and near
I swear it’s scary and I’m hard to fear.
Your light so bright – like a chandelier.
No longer dark – I see your sparks.
Take you for granted – never again,
they want you again –
they gone need more than chains.
Silenced
By DJ
When I am silenced I feel dead.
To me, the silenced becomes a bad habit.
When you see me, you witness bravery.
When you hear me, you witness power.
To hear me is to have an understanding of oneself.
To see me is to see the power of understanding right in front of you.
Liberate or Revolt
By MM
Intuitive soul, this kind of gift is heaven sent,
Blessed by the Creator of all that exist.
This gift is heaven sent!
This intuitive soul
used to recognize their evil plots and plans by distant miles.
Our hearts pulsating beats,
sounds off like a tribal drum beat.
The revolution will not be televised!
Liberating the Palestinian,
From the River to the Sea.
Yeah I said it
Liberate Palestine from the River to the Sea.
No, you cannot go on keep on suppressing
the humble man’s opinion.
Warring the streets until the whole world is free
from oppression, suppression,
from every River to every Sea.
1820, like the Mayflower that liberated free slaves
from the Americas to Liberia.
Ancestors
By CD
You’ve sweat, bled, and worked diligently
To provide and survive.
You’ve fought endlessly for equal rights,
love, respect and what defines moral standards.
You sung songs, wrote words of wisdom,
poetry, gave stories and taught us well.
l love the history you gave us.
I love the food you shared.
I love you entirely,
Ancestors!
I live through you in every measure,
And will commence to define your greatness.
As blank paper awaits to be filled for the next,
Ancestors!