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.
Feather Me
By AG
Can I fly with you guys
Where I belong, or is it because I’m a crow
I don’t know why I’m perceived as evil
But my physical existence is the same as a seagull
But does color really matter?
I glance at the pretty blue jays
And I’m very amazed how cardinals became an NFL logo on Sundays
Doves are love, and hummingbirds sing soft melodies
And vultures should be charged with multiple felonies
I just want to fly in the sky and rest in a nest
Eat worms when it’s my turn, I’ll never butt in line and be greedy
I’m considerate of the needy
I thank the humans for throwing me bread
I observe like an owl, and listen to what was said
I’m a bird, just a different color
So don’t judge black birds as evil and dirty
But learn us so the world will think we’re worthy
Dead Men on the Radio
By MH
~~In tribute to some of my favorite musicians. RIP. ~~
I heard a dead man on the radio
He was singing about his life
He said he was talking to the Man in the Mirror
He told me it didn’t matter if you’re black or white
I heard a dead man on the radio
He was singing memories of his father from way back when
It was a sad song
He just wanted for his momma to have one more dance with his father again
I heard a dead man on the radio
He sang of champions, his friends, and Killer Queens
I liked when he spoke of dynamite and laser beams
He was a really great entertainer by all means
I heard a dead man on the radio
He spoke of Space Cowboys and Jungle Love
He wanted to Fly Like an Eagle
I imagine he is now flying high in the sky above
I heard a dead man on the radio
He claimed to be free like a bird
He asked me to be a Simple Man
I hung onto every word
Stanza 1: Michael Jackson
Stanza 2: Luther Vandross
Stanza 3: Freddie Mercury (Queen)
Stanza 4: Steve Miller Band
Stanza 5: Lynyrd Skynyrd
The Unknown Words of Solitude
By AP
They say I should be used to living in a cage
Because all my life I have been trapped in pain
But if they only knew solitude educated me and kept me from going insane
It’s true that I am a product of my community
And I continue to pray that one day society would stop judging me
And give me equal opportunity
The color of my skin doesn’t speak of who I am
So your insults don’t affect me mentally because I am well educated, talented
And proud of who I am
America can be so cruel and mean
But that has never stopped me from believing in my American dream
Hard times in the ghetto raised me to be mentally and emotionally strong
So when they tell me I will never be nothing after prison
It only motivates me to prove them wrong
I know that life after prison can be a success
Especially if I continue to be determined to succeed and have faith in myself
Endurance
By GL
In
The memory of
Distant memories that burns the chest
Like sips of Hennessey
No chaser
Chased by smug-faced oppressors
Whose job it is to arrest us
Oppress us
For being what we was seeing
At a younger age
Observation of our surroundings
Was the first stage
To the life we chose
The concrete gave birth to a rose
And it bloomed for the world to see
Nurtured by the tears of Angels and Gods
I AM HE
From State to State
By SHA
Since a teenager I moved from state to state
Experiencing different lifestyles and cultures I never knew existed
Even though I was incarcerated it was a journey
That made me grow and become wiser than I was before
Never knowing who you will meet or who you will befriend wherever you land
For me it was a journey of life-altering changes
And ending my purpose in life with faith and commitment to what I’ve become today
The younger me was stuck in one place under one condition
Thinking it wouldn’t change just living for the moment
So, to say the least, this journey has not been bitter sweet
But one to continue to grow with and see what lies ahead
Peace
Stranger
By AG
Would you mind if I stood next to you – a stranger on the street?
Even though my life so far has not been nice and neat?
Society says I’m less than you
Because I have a past
And treats me like the dark and evil villain of the past
Would you mind I sat next to you – a stranger on a bus?
Could you look past the differences that frame the both of us?
Though scars and tats may seem to make me less upright than you
To judge me from my cover is an
Unfair point of view
Would you mind if I lived next to you – a stranger in your town?
When you find out about my felony, will you let me live it down?
Your neighbors turn their eyes away
As if it wasn’t clear
That because of my past mistake
They don’t want me here
Would you mind if I worked next to you – a stranger earning his way?
This job is all I’ve found so far to
Make some decent pay
They shut me down in interviews
As if I wasn’t fit
To do much more than mow a lawn or shovel piles of s**t
Would you mind if I joined you as part of your society?
An ex-con forced outside it with this stigma forced on me?
I’ve done my time
I’ve paid my dues
There’s no inherent danger
In treating me like one of you and not me
A stranger
Book Club
By CL
Thank you all for inviting me to a vast new world
Where one is limited only by a lack of imagination
A place where countless adventures unfurl
On a voyage to uncharted destinations
Kelli’s biweekly sessions of meditation
Followed by games to relieve our stress
Keela’s unwavering dedication
Encouraging us all to do our best
So amazing how a simple chapter in a book
Can give birth to complicated meetings of the mind
It’s a blessing in disguise depending on where you look
The cherished camaraderie you inevitably find
Brought together by words unread
Bonded by stories of similar fate
Reliving these memories in my head
Of moments I truly appreciate
Dedicated to Kelli Taylor, Keela Hailes, and the entire Free Minds Book Club Family
To Be My Heart and Soul
By EH
Dedicated to my heart and soul, Mersedez
My daughter Mersedez is my heart and soul
because when she’s sad, I’m sad
When she’s mad, I’m mad
When she’s sick, I’m sicker
When she’s thinking about me,
I feel it when she has something on her mind to tell me
I can feel it and when she gets hurt, I feel it
When she was four years old,
She fell and busted her chin open and had to get stitches
And guess who has the scar now, I do
Now that’s what I call my heart and soul and I love her with all my heart
39021-007
By LC
39021-007
That is my number till I pass away to heaven
It belongs to me
the thirty-nine thousand twenty-first man
to be sentenced and sent away from D.C.
Never mind my name
I now go by that number
Lost in a dreamless federal slumber
And even when I wake
and walk back through those penitentiary gates
that number will remain
never to be given to another man again
It belongs to me
and as long as I wear it I’ll never be free
Peaceful Protest
By AL
“The home of the brave,
and the land of the free”
are notably beautiful
words written by Francis
Scott Key.
Yet. in 1814 those words
didn’t apply to individuals
with the same skin color as
me.
So for all the injustice then
and now that I see,
I proudly place my fist in
the air while taking a
knee.
I stand in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick.
Love’s Reply
By MS aka NexXLife
Dear NexXLife,
I thought I gave you to someone who
would love you
I’m not all knowing
so I never knew
that your mother’s love
if that’s
what it was
would tarnish your innocence and corrupt you
reshape your world view
break your spirit and harden your heart
she battered your form and imprisoned your mind
that’s not what love is
not what love does
now because of this
all of those years of silent tears
huddled within yourself like a refugee
your fear was your impenetrable guard
so it was hard for anyone to get close to love you
protecting yourself you pushed people away
ashamed of your past
you were too scared to let someone love you
I hear you
I am never far from you
all you have to do is lower your guard
take a chance on me
light a beacon
and love (I) will surely find you
Yours truly,
Sincerely,
Love
Sermon of the Slave
By KC
I refuse to be grounded
By the clock pounded
Instead I will fly as one with time
To be a legend and never die
I am self, the undeniable truth
Even though the masses deny my worth—
by denying my freedoms
I am self-bonded by Blood, Iron and Pain
Transported over seas and through time
A lifetime of hate created by ignorance from others—
and self-destruction within
But still I fight—still I rise
And one day I will be free