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.
Love Is Pain
By AG
They say when you love someone
you don’t treat them bad
and it’s sad because through the mud
her heart, I continuously dragged.
Love sometimes makes me blind
and I totally lose track of time
thinking she’s forever mines.
But I’m not understanding the signs:
the crying, quietness, watching TV,
rolling her eyes. She tired of my lies.
She knows I’m not faithful
She knows I cheat
so I confess my disloyalty ‘cause
accountability is the key.
She’s gone and I can’t sleep.
In all reality, she deserve someone
better than me.
Baby, I know every heart must break,
and every tear must fall
out of every love I ever had
you was the best of them ALL.
P.S. I miss you.
Heather Heyer
By KW
Your mother put it best,
“They tried to kill my child to shut her up. Well, guess what?
You just magnified her”
You can rest assured, Heather, I will never forget you
My expression when speaking of you will always show
How much I respect the stance you took against divisiveness
How you truly are a Hero and Champion of the people,
How you are representing real American Values, Morals, and Creed.
Trust me Big Sis, I’ll keep marching on your behalf.
I’ll keep standing against inequality and injustice.
Using whatever tools I have to ensure champions like you?
Will live on
Thank you for your service, courage, and commitment
At ease, Soldier. At ease.
“She was murdered by the BRUTALITY OF EVERY SHERIFF who practiced LAWLESSNESS in the name of the LAW. She was murdered by the IRRESPONSIBILITY of EVERY politician from Governors on down to who FED his constituents the stale BREAD of HATRED and the SPOILED MEAT OF RACISM. She was murdered by the COWARDICE of EVERY NEGRO who passively accepts the EVILS of segregation, and who STAND on the SIDELINES in the struggle for JUSTICE.”
– Dr. Martin Luther King
(Speech originally given March 3, 1965 at Jimmie Lee Jackson’s funeral service. I replaced the “he” with “she” to fulfill my point)
A Living Death
By TTB
The worst pain I’ve ever felt
was looking at you, reach for me
through a video screen and I couldn’t
touch you; right then, I knew
what it felt like to die, a living
death—
A poem from a father to his youngest son.
Mouth Piece
By JM
Once, I was a man with a mouth piece
Who perceived himself
And who others perceived
As a loser, an outcast, a loner
Who did not fit into the normal world of friends
I have a mouth piece that may make a lot of people mad
Because I choose to use my First Amendment right
Of Freedom of Speech
But I also have a mouth piece
That brings joy and happiness to peoples’ lives
A lot of people love me
Because I have the courage to speak what’s on my mind
Never let anyone hold you back
And never keep stuff bottled in
You should feel free to let it out
Because you never know
If what you are holding in
Can change someone’s life
We’re Dreamers
By LV
They had promised us a better future.
We’re the ones that dream with a better future,
One by one our dreams were being achieved
We’ve built a future, in this country we’ve anchored our lives
At the end of the day, we have been awoken
to face the rawness of reality.
We’ve pursued the American dream,
they have traded our American dream;
Now we’re only dreamers,
that’s the title the government has given us.
A dream that in reality is more like a nightmare,
a nightmare that we’re forced to live day by day.
Dreams are one thing, but the reality is another.
Now we’re dreamers with an uncertain future,
My future seems like the next nightmare
It seems like they want to lock away my dreams
in a cell of an immigration detention center
“It doesn’t cost a thing to dream.”
We’re the dreamers,
The ones that claim justice, because we love this nation
We’re the ones that have overcome many obstacles,
We have reached plenty of achievements.
There’s many that wish to crush down our dreams
Trapped
By AD
Trapped in this cage,
Am I justified to feel rage?
or should I use this experience as fuel to ignite a blaze,
a scorching inferno burning, turning all the hate to ashes,
where justice applies to all, not just those in the lower classes,
But is it really Justice, where the symbol they use is blind?
The endless cycle of poverty,
Consumerism used as a tool to enslave my mind.
Poverty, just like robbery, it should be labeled as a crime.
Resources stripped from our communities, it strengthens yours,
while it weakens mine. Now you wonder why I’m mad.
Violent tendencies to express my anger, those who should protect me.
I run because in them I sense danger.
I’m still trapped in this cage, but no, it’s not of the physical kind.
It’s your multifaceted master plan – tools you use to enslave my mind.
Spring
By SJ
The sun is moving higher into the sky,
The days are bluer and brighter,
The pigeons are happily in flight,
The rains have been suspended,
and the beetles will soon begin to emerge from their
slumber in the earth.
Not long now,
And we will swelter,
In the blinding “Washington DC” sun,
That hangs like a bare light bulb,
from a wire above us.
The squirrels will take to running,
Crossing the concrete streets,
Searching for victuals.
Our little patch of planet is swinging,
Toward the furnace of “Sol” at a thousand miles per hour,
Soon, very soon its full effect,
Will broil the tops of our heads like eggs frying a pan.
Let us enjoy this in-between time, while we are still able!
New Home
By PA
I finally made it here, as sweat fills my hands.
There’re cuffs on my wrist, ankle & a chain wrapped around
my belly, man.
I look around on the bus, as it pulls through the steel gate.
Most of the guys are anxious & just can’t seem to wait.
Me, I wish the bus would sit right here & never enter,
I began also to think to myself, why did I pull that trigger?
Well it’s too late to think of the past—My only…
choice is to live here & survive like a man.
Whatever that is, I really don’t know.
I’ve heard so many stories on how things could go.
I’m in a bad position as it all sinks in.
But, maybe I can turn this negative into a positive.
I’m 19 with 10 years, here to grow.
If I practice on bad behaviors, it will only make things go slow.
As I stepped off the bus in this, new world of life,
I need to make a decision to carry books or a knife?
They process me in, after they remove all the iron
And my body feels so drained, weary, and tired
Each man got towel, blanket, sheets, and a mattress as well.
And was taken to our New Homes which now was a prison cell.
As I entered my unit I became very aware, for
it seemed every pair of eyes turned to me and stared.
#127 was my cell number, I stepped inside
to make up my bed, for my first night here of slumber.
I laid in bed to free my mind for this mental fight,
which I knew would last the next 10 years of my life.
John My Friend
By DK
Today was a bittersweet occasion,
Helped me for a moment to reduce my constant raging.
John, you are now free…at home…at last,
This past year, gone, it escaped us so fast.
I know you left a truly changed man,
I watched you every day…making your reentry plans.
I already miss you and the jokes that we played,
Hopefully once I’m released, we’ll catch up…one of these days.
We butted heads, and fussed sometimes; I caused you a bit of tribulation,
As you left I heard as you said ‘goodbye & take care’…true jubilation.
When you left me here today, I regret that I left so much unspoken,
You are such a great friend, a mentor, I’m kind of heartbroken.
It’s rare to find a true friend like you in a place like this,
D*mn it John, you’re one friend I will surely miss.
So by the time you read this, you’ll be settled, back on your feet,
And the stigma you’ll face, well it’s something I know you can beat.
You’re highly educated…A Penn State grad,
So many qualities you shared, reminds me of my dad.
So I know I will surely hear from you soon,
As corny as it sounds, I’ll think of you each time I look at the moon.
So John, I love you my dear friend, but please don’t return,
Because this freedom you were granted, is something you definitely earned.
Marco! Polo!
By AC
Life is more like a group thing,
it isn’t really a solo.
I wish I would have known
instead of finding out on my own
that everything is better in company
than going at it alone.
Marco! Polo!
Always looking for something out there.
Missing the small simple things,
or how perfect they were
and how they meant everything
Marco! Polo!…
Just open your eyes,
Wake up to the lights
of all that surrounds you.
Take off from your face
the veil that blinds you.
Appreciate what you have.
It may not all be good,
but it’s not totally bad.
And try to remember:
Keep your eyes on the ball,
and that we tend to forget
that the higher we get,
the harder we fall.
I’m learning all this
as I’m getting old.
Whatever you do,
Hold on tight to your soul.
Marco! Polo!
I found you.
Incarceration
By DJ
Could have, would have, should have been on the streets, on my feet
Looking out my cell window like damn, I’m so far from a street
Staring at the wall like this isn’t where I should be
In the visitation room just looking at my beautiful niece
When I call home just talking and thinking like that’s where I should be
When they call my name at mail call, you should see the smile on my face, just the happiest as I could be
Under the jail if I die in prison I know that is where they’ll bury me
When pencil meets paper, my hand lets out the real me
When I read, I travel to every place but Southeast