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.
Once Upon A Time
By GL
Once upon a time . . .
I lived my life, as though any day could of been my last.
At the tender age of 15, that was how I was living.
THUG LIFE wasn’t just a cool slogan for me
It was a religion.
Amen . . . .
A man . . . manifested a plan
To cultivate the minds and land of his people
THE PEOPLE
We shall overcome . . . some day
But for now, we can forget about being treated socially equal
Maybe in 30 yrs or so . . . in a 100 yrs or mo’
What you reap you sow . . . When I think I GROW
When I think I GLOW . . . When one think, it SHOWS
Think about it . . .
Scratch your head and blink about it
Dropped some jewelry, the impact knocked a link up out it
Once upon a time . . .
I was of a different mind
On the block all the time – committing different crimes
I grew up poor . . . refrigerator on E, my bed was the floor
Ventured down a different path
Opened a different door
Emotions became a wrath
The block became my whore
Money became my b****
My b**** became my god
And GOD became a myth . . .
My salvation, was inside a spliff
The burning bush was burning
My world was turning, upside down
A child hood was lost – a light was found
Society is out of bounds, to the undesirables
Kids wanting to be what they see on cable
Damn near every household possess a Cain and Abel
Damn near every parent in my hood was unstable
A half full 40oz in the fridge, a bag of red hot chips on the table
Crack pipes stashed in the medicine cabinets
It’s easy for the youth to gravitate, to the GHETTO FABULOUS
Gangsters, killers and hustlers
Foreign whips, and customers
Fly girls lust for us
Feeling like you on top of the world
But all along, you’re on top of nothing
At least, you’re on top of something
Even if it’s on top of nothing
Once upon a time . . . I was of a different mind
My 3rd eye was blind to the symbols and signs
Now I can see CLEARLY
New Life
By RF
I’m a changed man, with this New Life
AIM for success
I finally got it right
All the drugs and stuff
Those are old habits
Negative people, you can have it
Healthy living, that’s all me
I’m shining bright like a diamond
Can’t you see?
I feel like a newborn baby
It feels lovely to breathe New Life
My REENTRY into the outside world won’t be much of a fight
Living Life
I’m just living life
Come join me in this New Life
My changed ways was for the better
AIMING for success
I won’t rest until I reach it
I know my new way of living
Will make my loved ones proud
It’s my new certificate of completion
My New Life
I’ll just sit back
And SMILE.
They Don’t Want Us to Recite Our Poems
By AG
They don’t want us to recite our poems, don’t want the people to behold any signs or see any symbols and they d-mn sure don’t want us to know that the ancestors are with us. They don’t want us to recite our poems.
They fear the foreign sounds of our secret language: Hope. They thought it long dead. They are afraid of the spread of our fever how it creeps along the sense—our hearing and seeing, our awakening perception, our ability to sniff out what’s false.
The willingness to feel our most painful wound, the taste of blood on our lips. They don’t want us to recite our poems.
They are afraid of the promise of our spring, the way mother earth blushes green for us, hiding her gift in full view of both the strong and weak alike.
She has shown us fine stones in a babbling brook: love, faith, courage, tenacity, and understanding. They fear the inevitable fall of their rampaging giants.
They don’t want us to recite our poems. They want us to die with our songs unsung. They want to bury our burnt-out husks perfectly preserved shells, with sightless eyes of bitter black smoke and a mouthful of tightly clenched pearl-white teeth, trapping inside, for all eternity, the music that they desperately fear.
They don’t want us to recite our poems.
Balance
By DJ
I’ve been in this world,
for a short time.
Countless tears
wasted on
nothing an’ no ones
Feeling like my
life is over
before it has begun
Yet why is it
that I haven’t given
up the fight
to right my wrongs
and raise my son right
I have travelled the hardest road
been from this penitentiary to
the next
but no one cares
but me
My life means so much more
to me than it use to
I feel like a bird without
a nest
The hopes and dreams that came so
fast can only be a rendition
of my f-ed up past
Drumming Pains
By TO
Listen to the pains of the beating drum
Mental Anguish
Ba.dum.ba.dum.dum
The sounds of a mind taking a beating
Sent to the ghettos, stripped from their kingdom
Bum.Dum.Ba-dum.bum
Its hide screams at every beat that comes
Ba.Dum.Ba.Dum.Dum
Rhythm & Blues; Pain never sounded so good
Embracing our culture, if they only understood
Ba.dum.Ba-dum.bum
Heavy bass on the beat soothes my mind on these streets
Nighttime, my baby went to sleep on my heartbeat
BA.BUM.BA.BUM.BA.BUM
Voluptuous hips rock to the heavy beat of the soul
Synchronized to the sound of its own
Whum-bum.Whum.bum.bum
A powerful nation, the beat of its throne
An unstoppable machine feared cuz they know
Ba.dum.Ba.dum.Bum
That soulful beat passed down for centuries
Voices are heard from lungs never empty – full of life
These drumming pains have history
Ba.dum.Ba-dum.Bum
So next time you hear heavy bass or that bellowing drum
Listen to its spirt; that beat where I come from
Ba.dum.Ba.dum.Bum
Untitled
By RTC
To my loving sweetheart, I do admit
Even though we’re apart, my love for you will never quit.
You spark my world with your loving ways,
With pleasure that carries me through for days and days.
I miss you dearly and your pleasing personality,
That is surely pleasing and very special to me.
Truth be told, no matter how old,
Your love is so warm—never cold.
You are the one who won my heart over
Helped me to stay strong and forever sober.
You’ll always be my one and only true love,
As I thank our creator, our God above.
With you I long to be,
For a lifetime—once I’m free.
You’re more important to me than money,
You’re sweeter to me than honey.
With me—in my heart, you’ll always have a place,
For only you can put such a smile on my face.
I hope all is well for you out there,
And know my dear, how much, I-really-do-care.
Things of That Nature
By DC
Yeah they say I grew up where I’m not wanted.
Where my surroundings are beautiful,
and all the others growing look different than me.
But who’s to blame?
‘Cause I know I was planted here for a reason.
Even if the world don’t know or see.
They trust all the others,
with their pretty faces that just make you give them attention.
And their sharp bodies that make people be careful how they handle them,
if touching them is their intention.
Who’s to say I’m not just as beautiful, and deserve some respect and power?
Cause even though they’re roses and I’m a dandelion,
I’m still considered a flower.
Black, Gifted, and Proud
By DB
Since I’m Black and considered 1/3 of a man
They feel I can only relate to crime
My physical imprisonment is a tactic
To conceal thoughts produce by my creative,
Innovative strength of mind
I’m united as one man
& hope my Brothers and sisters will unite as one Klan
Stripped of our nationality and culture
Only to become ancestors to no land
My pigmentation is a pig temptation
To annihilate our race and uplift America
To a white man nation
The truth is basic
Only seek by those willing to see
If you choose to face it you’ll learn
What seem to still be confusing to me
One nation under God
Was facilitated by a façade
To weaken our defenses from simply
Oppressing the odds
Now who’s in charge
The last decision
Is OURS
As a whole we must proclaim
We’re Black, Gifted and Proud.
Thoughts
By MP
Late nights and early morning
Is what it’s becoming
Same thing, different day
Trying to figure out life as I know it
Scared to give a little because
People are taking more than what’s given
I’m trying to play this game like chess
But everyone else is moving like checkers
Help raising my daughter is a hard thing to do in my situation
I feel like it’s time for change
I feel like the old ways ain’t working no more
So, it’s time for new ways
In life, if something breaks you fix it
If not for me, my daughter deserves it
My generation is lost
They have no moral value, loyalty or respect
Shaken dudes that was once a friend
And killing them is now getting everyone paid
And all I want to do is change this game
Late nights and early mornings
Is what it’s becoming
Getting on my knees and praying asking Allah to take this pain
My little brother just got more time than his age
I’m on this path and I don’t know where it’s going
All I know is that I have to figure out something
Drifting through life hoping that I be smart for me and my daughter
Just my thoughts!!!
Ms. Virginia
By BH
Written on August 14, 2017
Today I lost and discovered you at the same time
Your patriotic stance and sacrifice was unique and one of a kind.
You lived and died for what you believed in
A righteous state of mind.
For equality and justice for all mankind.
A right that each and every one of us should be ready to fight for at the drop of a dime.
In loving memory of Heather Heyer,
A gift from heaven, you are truly divine.
Human Nature
By SAT
Every day I struggle and ask are we fighting for a cause or just because.
Ain’t no sense in raising your fist if you don’t even know what you’re fighting for.
But I’m scared to put my hands down to keep from getting hit in the face.
I won’t just brace up against anything, but I refuse to turn the other cheek.
There’s a very thin line between caution and paranoia,
but I’m not gonna keep looking over my shoulder
and I won’t keep peeking out the blinds.
Outside of my windows there’s someone peeking inside.
I keep telling myself to pay attention and stay focused.
I can’t afford to lose my mind; my heritage gives me pride.
Cause my ancestors died for me to live.
I’m equipped with a mustard seed that moves mountains and I’ll prove happiness is priceless.
To be confused will cost you to become self-righteous and self-centered.
My feet are cemented in the streets.
A product of the fiend my mother was and she was never there…but my father was?
And that’s a flipside of the black family portrait.
We are depicted amongst society as failures.
We’ve inherited hell on earth cause heaven ain’t within crumbs distance.
Unless, I put my brothers and sisters on my shoulders to get closer to grab the ribbon in the sky.
Dear America
By IS
I’m writing you today, a lost voice from prison
Lost and confused about this country we live in
And the people that’s in it
How do you claim to be united, when there’s so much division
So much division based on religion
Based on our culture, our sex, and our pigment
Oh America, how could you be so selfish and ignorant?
To allow a man of this nature, guide us with ignorance
On a path to destruction, I pray for deliverance
For the colored, for the poor, for the Muslim and immigrant
Oh America, Oh America, you have shown your colors
How many years in your country will my people suffer?
I shed tears for my brothers, my sisters and mothers
The words that you utter have exploited your cover
You America, have proven racism still exists
The leaders of your nation consist of white supremacists
There are those who follow them and those who are against
A war within your people, your country’s at risk
I fear for you America, but I pray that I am wrong
Sincerely, yours truly, I—– S—–.