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.
Trust the Rusted Chains
By JA
Herringbones those were on me, my ignorant a** wanted big gold ropes
DNA slave mentality
15 handcuffs, 17 add shackles for a Lifetime
Airplanes, ankles and wrist pain, swollen rivers my blood thickens in my eye
I see George waiting patiently for me, why Soledad Brother?
Milk crates full of chains, ominous black boxes by us for us
Belly chains pulled tight in Lewisburg basement all night
Summertime lights on all night
On Henry Hill, man them crackers a tear you up
Hot pipes and gas that they’ll swear don’t exist
Stop fightin’, an inside joke, you been there, then u know
Rogers, he the worst of the bunch
BANG! Rip up your family pictures etc.
From it he gets so much pleasure
3 minute shower in a cage
Fools rappin’ all day, 3 in the mornin’ monkey play
What would George say …about them planting razors when they shake you down
Because police got killed in D town
Day one, phase one. we call it
You know if you been there to Henry Hill
The Big House, where they throw everything important away
And lie on they mama with a straight face
Throw you downstairs when they feel like it
In E block the early smell coming up from the laundry is the only thing that calmed me
At night, I chased stars like the way when we was little with cars
B block cells so lil’ with big bugs, gas on all the books
Lay on the floor at night to breathe, dreams with the bugs
Feeding the birds in my window, wishing I too could fly
I do that a lot
If you been to Henry Hill then u know how I feel about chains
While Doing Time
By PM
A Kyrielle poem
While doing time, I found Free Minds
While doing time, I see I shine
While doing time, I learned to write
While doing time, my poems got tight
While doing time, I think outside
While doing time, I’m still inside
While doing time, I learned a lot
While doing time, we’re fed through slots
While doing time, became a man
While doing time, jail I can’t stand
While doing time, I met people
While doing time, I am see through
While doing time, I’m out of sight
While doing time, I have to fight
While doing time, only I see
While doing time, my mind is free!
In My Mind
By PJ
In my mind’s eye,
I see so many things.
I’ve been frozen for eternity,
forever preserving
their beauty and sentimentality.
In my mind,
they can remain untouched,
perfect that way,
as beautiful as I perceived
them to be when beheld
Forever: sunny days,
forever rainy and gray,
forever pretty.
the lady who captured
my imagination.
Forever: people, days
and bright thoughts.
In my mind’s eye,
frozen in time.
Periodically, I review
their beauty and sentimentality,
through the lens of a
cloudy eye: bleary,
clearing as my mind progresses
through each cherished memory.
Lady Liberty
By M.V.
Lady Liberty must be sleep
Or maybe she turned her back
Lady Liberty must be sleep
Or maybe she doesn’t care
Lady Liberty must be sleep
Or maybe she’s in on it too
Lady Liberty must be sleep
Because there’s millions of people in a cage
Lady Liberty must be sleep
Because innocents are dying everyday
Lady Liberty must be sleep
Because those guilty remain free
Lady Liberty must be sleep
Or maybe she’s racist too
Lady Liberty must be sleep
Or maybe she just can’t see
Lady Liberty must be sleep
Or maybe she’s just a disguise
Lady Liberty must be sleep
Because we’re still waiting for justice
Lady Liberty must be sleep
Because we’re focused on the wrong things
Lady Liberty must be sleep
Because no one follows her values
Lady Liberty must be sleep
Trayvon, Tamir, Michael, Eric, Breonna, etc
The list is long, now Ahmaud and George
May you rest in peace
With Lady Liberty
I Really Do This
By BG
I love to write my thoughts with paper and ink
If only to get a response of what it is you think
When I want to, I lay down and write rhymes
In the form of poetry line after line
Sometimes it takes a minute or two
Others five, though it’s all true
That’s what I like most about it
It don’t take long at all to write it
Plus it’s therapy
All positive energy
Strong and Fearless
By RA
We are faced with new times. Our homes have become workplaces and schools. I know some days it may get the best of you but try to understand and believe you can overcome anything you’re faced with because you are strong and fearless women.
You’re the strongest people we know. You have overcome so much in your lives that I know, and I believe you will become even stronger and make the Best of these New Times!
When it gets hard on you, just take a step back and say to yourself…I’m a strong and fearless woman, who will not let these new times get the best of me 😊
You are fearless, strong and you have this.
#FearlessAndStrong
My Precious Little Gift
By SM
I’m grateful for my daughter
Just as much as a farmer is for rain in Texas
I love her more than bees love honey
I love her because when I look at her
I see an innocent little girl
That I can show more things than my peoples showed me
I am grateful for my daughter
Because when I watched her mother give birth to her
I realized that life was as precious as a VVS diamond
Or a AP Rolex
I need her more than I need oxygen in my lungs
I love her so much that if there was a scale
I would break the scale
Mom I Wonder Why
By MC
When I had my appendicitis
And my first major surgery
You were right there
And I felt your compassion, concern, and care
When my feet would break out every summer
And I couldn’t walk without pain
You were right there
And I felt your compassion, concern, and care
When I had that heart attack
And had to be rushed to the hospital in an ambulance
You were right there
And I felt your compassion, concern, and care
When I had my tonsillectomy
And hemorrhaged all that blood
You were right there
And I felt your compassion, concern, and care
Yes, anytime in my life, I’ve suffered
An ailment that was clearly physical
You were right there
And I felt your compassion, concern, and care
But when I was distraught over our move
From the only home I’d ever known
Even though you were right there
I didn’t feel your compassion, concern, or care
And when I was homeless
And being abused by my brother-in-law
You were not there
And I didn’t feel you compassion, concern, or care
And when the depression and anxiety took over
And I turned to you for help
Though you were right there
I did not get your compassion, concern, or care
Now that I am locked away from everyone I love
And I feel more alone than ever before
Though when I call you, you are physically there
I no longer feel your compassion, concern, or care
Why anytime I’ve suffered ailments that aren’t physical
Though the pain is still very, very real
You are never there
With your compassion, concern, or care?
Push-Pull!
By CM
Push! With all your force and your might
Push! With all your strength, you must fight
Push! And pray to conquer the night
Push! And pray for peace when in plight.
Pull! And show no fear when you’re scared
Pull! Your burdens bound to be shared
Pull! Persistence shows that you care
Pull! Your family’s free ‘cause you bled.
Push! And use the wind on your back
Push! You have no time to relax
Push! Relief, it comes with a tax
Push! In time, the strife will retreat.
Pull! Its fields of hope that you till
Pull! Values instilled with your will
Pull! Slowly survive this ordered
Pull! There’s a pasture over the hill!
Reach beyond your grasp, you’ll surely gain more,
Pull away from your past and push yourself forward.
Broken Souls
By AE
They are cast aside, rejected,
Longing for that day, dejected,
Harboring torment, desperate,
Illusions of normality.
Twisted, sick, corrupt captors,
Like a black hole, it sucks you in;
The environment, the elements, rhetoric,
Nontransparent and hidden from society.
To our families, once begotten,
But now only forgotten,
They are broken around him,
Fallen, one by one, again and again.
The sickness is in the air…
But he fights it!
His gas mask, the only person who’s always cared,
Fighting to persevere, detractors become irrelevant,
His chin high, his chest out, he is benevolent.
He remains headstrong, steadfast, and whole,
And will never fall as a broken soul…
Poem with a Verse
By AC
Let me take you to a place I like to go,
when I’m looking for some answers
to the many, many questions
about things that I don’t know.
There is no car that could take you on this road,
no shoes that could make your steps feel any lighter,
and there is no amount of magical concoctions
that could ease any of our pains
as we continue to march on.
We’ll have to travel East
until the East begins to blur
and slowly eliminates
any difference it can hold
in contrast with the West.
And we’ll continue on
until the North lifts up its arms,
becomes brothers with the South,
and respectfully embraces
in something resembling warmth.
When we get close to where we are going,
the clock will keep on ticking,
but its measurements will no longer mean a thing.
You can come and stay with me forever,
but there will be no one that could tell you
what forever really means.
At this place, the twilight lasts a little longer,
shining light on our ever-winding road
that ahead of us continues twisting
in contrast with how straight it may now seem
on the parts we’ve left behind.
We’ll need to find a way
to get off the road that we walk on
and get on to the trail
that will take us to the world that lies beyond.
When I get onto this trail, I always see a pond;
the dim light reveals shining silver water
that shows me the reflection of the person that I was,
the person I will be, and the person that I am.
On the horizon, I see mountains,
darkened by the distance,
hidden by the shadows
of all the things that are unknown,
unseen from where we are.
When the hypnotizing spell is broken
and I continue walking,
fireflies slowly begin to gather by,
lighting up for every thought and every idea
that proved way too elusive
to keep bottled in my mind.
Now they gently float on the warm breeze,
blessing me with light.
I keep walking until the ground is just no more,
until the water in the shining silver pond
begins to cascade off the side of this small world.
I sit down,
and I let my feet dangle off the edge
while I’m staring into space,
trying to figure out where the fireflies lights end,
and where the glowing lights from all those stars begin.
GOD, it’s all so beautiful out here.
You would think it would be cold,
but it feels so nice and warm.
The wind carries the familiar scents
of all the things I miss from home.
The starlights hit the water and then scatter,
shining light on to my face,
reminding me at once
of what I love about this place.
I check inside my pockets
for the things of value, I have brought.
Inside one of the pockets, I find a small, torn piece of paper
with a verse that I once wrote.
In the other, I have nothing,
and so I get the thought:
I am the richest man alive,
for I have nothing to distract me
from what really matters in this life.
And as I sit out here,
feet dangling on the edge of the whole world,
thanking whoever thought the earth was flat,
for I like to come here now
when nostalgia, loneliness, and sadness
take a hold of my poor soul.
I think about the stars,
and I feel their loneliness as well,
they spend their whole lives shining
in a place so far away.
I think about my loved ones,
I want to hug them,
I want to kiss them,
I want to tell them to their face
that I love them so very much,
every passing second of every single day.
I want to see the sparkles in their eyes,
I want to hear the glorious sounds,
of their laughter and their smiles.
I want all those things I love,
I want to live them once again.
I want all of those things,
all those things that give me strength.
Come, sit down with me.
Come, look at the stars with me, my friend.
About this poem: I just wanted to take the reader out on a field trip and bring him/her into my mind. Sorry for mess, I don’t usually have much company inside my head. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Good luck figuring out the symbolism.