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.
Even Hurricanes Make Flowers Grow
By JMA
I was a destroyer
A fickle force of nature
Who strolled through life
Damaging
Every soul I touched
Then you came into me
A storm
You ignited a conflagration
Within me
That catalyzed my transformation
Into the man you see before you
Fire burns
Not to destroy
But to transform
Transmute
Transmogrify
A change in temperament
Tempered by the slick touch
Of the woman who loves me
You have my hurricane
But even hurricanes make flowers grow
Free Minds
By Sincere Echoes
This is a call for all “Free Minds”
To enter the think tank
Make a deposit into the brain bank
And withdraw a little thought change
Self-empowerment
Builds structure, like support beams
Which keeps the self-esteem from crumblin’
The experience is humblin’
When you merge courage with comfort
And go in search of something
But, in order to be a “Free Mind”
You gotta make the best of the free time
It’s not just leisure
That’s how you facilitate to read between lines
And see yourself a little deeper.
Stretch a little farther; to become a dream-reacher
That’s a free mind – free thinker
Which makes the climb of the mental hills easier
The essentials of developmental
The escape of the dozed mind that had you
Trapped in a blind spot
Remorse the blindfold and life becomes a
Sight for blind eyes
With crystal clear facts you can now rationalize
Education and elevation, no longer passing you by
This is the evolution of the free minds
Where capabilities and limitations find patience
Where purpose and worth don’t feel so vacant
Finally found yourself and alleviated the imitations
Cause when you free mind; you free yourself on the inside
You tap into potentials and see yourself materialize
Your thoughts are reused and you begin to
Second guess and think twice
So do away with mistakes that were once
plentifully made. So I once again say, “This is a call for
free minds. Who’s ready to set their minds free?”
War Child
By DM
Inspired by the book War Child by Emmanuel Jal
I am battling for my life
I’ve got one chance to get it right
If I get it wrong, I’ll lose my life
My kids, my freedom, plus my wife
I’m a war child who represents the struggle
The ones on the corner, all they do is hustle
I’m striving for my GED, so when I come home
I get a nice paying job and live stress free
I’m a war child livin’ out of a cell
A child of God who is stuck in hell
Only time will tell
I hope my options won’t fail
Changing Thoughts
By DK
As I sit here tired, alone, but peaceful in my cage
It gives me time to reflect and to let go of the rage.
I see so many guys, different races, different colors,
Makes you wonder why we all messed up, leaving behind our children, lovers and mothers.
What were we thinking while committing our crimes?
Look, it’s left me here…trying to write you this rhyme.
I’m so sorry I left you, so scared and alone,
I’m so sorry I left you in a fatherless home.
I sit here and reflect on all the things that I did,
And how I, not anyone else, caused me a 25 year bid…
So I give you the promise of a much better man,
‘Cause in 12 more years I’ll be armed with a real plan.
I’ll always be there for you in a time of need,
I’m starting now to plant the positive seeds.
Seeds that will flourish into a beautiful flower,
Giving me the strength and knowledge to help empower.
Just because I made mistakes, and lost my way,
Doesn’t mean because you’re my daughters, you’re destined the same way.
So keep your heads high, be proud, and strong…
Daddy will be home; it seems like forever, but it’s really not that long.
Inner Strength
By BH
As a product of his environment,
He could not read nor write,
Designed and programmed for destruction,
Thoughts of suicide haunted him at night.
As a product of his environment.
Incarcerated overnight
Afraid to give up, he decided to fight
Six years later a GED, Paralegal diploma and
An Associate’s Degree in Business Management
He found life.
As a product of his environment
He took flight.
Perceive
By RD
I am one who has been judged unfit to live in society
Locked away to serve so-called justice to so-called crimes.
They say I am unfit yet I twine my ink with tears forming every line
It truly saddens me to see the country in such division
Hatred and violence, can anyone see – does anyone share a broader vision?
We are spiraling down a rabbit hole that leads to naught but destruction.
Can anyone realize what all this hate lead to – does anyone see the repercussions?
Its like a cancer greedily eating away at this country
Home by home, community by community, city by city, state by state
We are being consumed by this hate – and it saddens me.
It brings tears to my eyes to watch kids at school chant racist remarks
Is this where we are going back to – is this when the was will once again start?
A war that has consumed so much blood, sweat, and tears
A war that left so many in their homes after dark – cowering from their fears
Is this where we are going? If so it saddens me – me who has been labeled unfit for society
Me who see the beauty of life and country – helplessly watching this smog of hate smother us causing the world so much anxiety.
It saddens me and I weep – weep at the blind hate, racism, and violence that plague this country like a medical patient
It saddens me so I weep – weep at the crumbling of a beautiful nation
I Got Up
By DC
If you see a man down, do you assume that he fell?
If the burning in his eyes is there, which story does it tell?
If he is on his knees, is this a sign of submission?
Or was he once on his back, and rose to this position?
If you see him dropping his head, staring at the ground
Did he quit? Or is he looking for a new way to get around?
If you see that he is in tears, and he is letting them run
Do you assume that he lost, or that he has won?
Is he giving up or getting up?
Is he content with the notion of slumber
With no real inclination of waking up?
Could you give him a sec, could you wait?
To watch him fall, and then rise to be great?
For his struggle, though long and imperfect
Built him up from nothing
So it was worth it
From laying to sitting, from sitting to kneeling
To now almost standing – his resolve, so willing!
To be standing on his own, is his burning desire
It’s what drives him, like passion filled fires
To put his head up high, and his chest popped out
And not many can say, they know what “getting up” is about
Fertile Concrete
By GL
Lead and fire, erupted out of the stainless . . . steel weapon of humane destruction
Lead and fire has left a heart broken; a napkin soaked in; tears of grief
Which pours out of the crease of 2 eye sockets
Then rolls down the cheeks of a grieving soul
onto the surface of a sleeping man child
Who open his eyes, then show his grandma his dimples and gummy smile
Then he fills his lungs up with air, ball up his little hands, kick his legs
then allow the church to become acquainted with his presence
In a setting which is sad, the young lad, who never had
the luxury of knowing his dad – Grew up to be a college grad
Through correspondence – Through the walls of correctional institutions
Un-consciously volunteered in the destruction of his neighborhood
Because he only knew of no better options . . .
Grew up in a culture of crime
Where money is worshiped and tough guys drop dimes
The world tried to rob him out of his prime
But he primed his mind with knowledge
Now he obtain raw power
I believe that the concrete produced a rose
but all you probably see is a flower.
Mirror
By DC
Forever seemed like never
Until pain found my doorstep
Some lines I leave lingering
Because I never want you to think less
Life is so impressive once you inherit this perception
Forced in different directions
But in every field I’ve been accepted
Maybe because my soul stayed pure
Or my differences from the rest I never let interfere
I hung love in the closet and put happiness on my back
Hid pain in a place I’ll never want to go to get it back
Address me right and your letter should reach its destination
I know workers with no occupations
And every second that’s been invested
Has been self destructive in various places
A dazed boxer was saved by a bell
A suicidal man was saved by religion
A lady that gave up on her dreams was saved by a vision
Now imagine you on the edge of that cliff
What’s going to save you from what’s tempting?
If
By JMA
If prisons
Lease our liberty
If seas
Rent our shores
If silence
Hustles penny songs
If power
Purchases helplessness
Then into this world
I step renewed
To float unbound
Cocooned in pleasure, in pain
Not yet spent
Comprehend, contained
A desperate paradigm
Unknown, unborn, untainted
If this time
I can love myself enough to live
War Child
By NH
Inspired by the book War Child by Emmanuel Jal
Oh War Child,
look at what you have become
Oppressed by a system that forced you to become wild
In the merge of guns and a mind that has no conscious
you have become a war child
Seeing blood flow from out the flesh of another has no case in your file
it’s just another memory that been shot
Pow!!!!
Oh War Child
Yes, you, African boy
You’ve been dredged from the hands of your sweet mother
and now look at you
angry by the fault of your circumstances
so you have no care in this world because you feel that you are on your own
but you are not alone.
Yes I feel the pain that trickles my soul
the war that replays in my mind is long lasting it never seem to get old.
Watching the bloodbath of my brothers drown them to death has triggered me
to become cold.
Oh War Child
look at what I have become
guns was my expression of the g code
and the fault of me being away from my sweet mother
has put me in depression of the survivor mode
Frustration has ruled my thoughts
all my effort to find a way out had seem to led to naught
There was no place for freedom
I was caught up in the system of oppression but
Oh War Child
you are not alone
I too am looking to find a way out
You Define Me
By JM
You take the weight of my world on your shoulders
See visions of a past life inside your head
You’re always welcoming when there’s a need to be held
Quell your frustrations between my legs
You’re something
When you ain’t got nothing else
Demand the truth, even when you lie to yourself
And self; is awed, by your style and grace
Your positive temperament
Your humble haste
You don’t ever complain
You possess the strength of which is famed
You take so much
Letters and phone calls
No matter what, you stay in touch
You are the vision when it’s hard to see
You see past the rest, optimistically
Do your best to hold things together
You hold it down
No matter
Whatever
You define me
You don’t care what people say
As years went by
You made me stay
You made me spend all those nights alone trying
You kept me alive
When everything else was dying
Essential
Necessary
The way you made me feel
Felt you in the past
Sometimes stronger
Always real
Never felt so much of you in the heart
And what is gained
Can never be taken apart
You define me…
HOPE!!