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.
Drag My Name Through the Mud
By D.H.
I live in a life where I always make bad decisions
Breaking myself up into different sets or divisions
I try & put together a puzzle with pieces missing
Losing more & more pieces
Because of inaccurate precision
I think this might be what’s embedded in my destiny
& I know I can’t let this get the best of me
I think I can I Think I can said the engine that could
But I still can’t figure out why I should
Feelin’ peace in my heart
But pumping hate through my blood
Tired of people that keep dragging my name through the mud
Amenaza a la Sociedad / Threat to Society
Por Y.A.
El gobierno dice que soy una amenaza
Pero quisiera saber lo que por sus mentes pasa
¿Por qué me quieren encarcelar para siempre sin volver a casa?
Cuando nadie es perfecto y todos hemos pecado
Cuando todos en nuestros años de juventud malas decisiones hemos tomado
¿Por qué me juzgan con mentiras y falsas acusaciones?
O trayendo a mi alma muchas aflicciones
¿Por qué 3 o 4 personas son la comunidad que busca mi vida en un tribunal,
Pero 30 o 40 veces en número de personas son las que quieren mi libertad.
Porque en sus mentes solo me quieren devorar como un león
Urgente devora a su presa sin dare oportunidad,
En el país de las oportunidades ¿dónde está mi oportunidad?
Para demostrar que muchas cosas han cambiado en mi vida.
Si ustedes son los buenos de la película como lo demuestran;
Desterrando a las personas para siempre en una prisión?
O dejando a una madre sin su hijo cuando más lo necesita
O a un niño o niña sin padre para que siga el mismo ciclo de busca de amor en las calles?
Es verdad que cada quién paga por sus errores y necesita corrección
Pero por qué no se dan cuenta cuando la persona ha dejado
Que la corrección haya tocado su vida
Y que no es necesario que su vida termine en una cárcel.
Entonces dónde están las oportunidades?
Pero llegará un día cuando todos estemos delante del trono blanco
Y necesitemos una oportunidad y a los que dieron oportunidades se les dara oportunidad
Pero a los que las negaron se les negara.
Por eso es una muy buena opción hacer con los hombres como quisieramos que hicieran con nosotros.
Estoy seguro que la comunidad me necesita más que la prisión
Y que la única amenaza que puedo representar es a sus trabajos
Porque mi misión es ayudar a nuestra juventud a salir de las calles.
Asi que tire la piedra contra mi él que de ustedes este limpio de errores
Threat to Society
By Y.A.
The government says that I’m a threat
But I’d like to know what goes through their minds
Why do they want to incarcerate me forever with no chance of going home?
When nobody is perfect and we all have sinned
When we have all made bad decisions in our youth
Why do they judge me with lies and false accusations?
Or leaving many afflictions on my soul
Why 3 or 4 people are the community that seeks my life in a tribunal, but 30 or 40 times that in number are the people who want my liberty.
Because in their minds they only want to devour me like a lion
Urgently devours its prey without giving it a chance,
In the land of opportunity, where is my opportunity?
To demonstrate that many things have changed in my life.
If you are the good ones in the movie as they say
Exiling the people to prison forever
Or leaving a mother without her son when she needs him the most
Or a boy or girl without their father so they continue the same cycle of looking for love in the streets
It’s true that everyone pays for their mistakes and needs correction
But why don’t they realize that when the person has stopped
The correction has touched their lives
And it’s not necessary for their life to end in jail.
So where are the opportunities?
But a day will come when all of us are in front of the white throne
And we need an opportunity and those who give opportunities will get an opportunity
But those who refuse them will be refused
For that it’s a good option to do unto others as we wish them to do unto us
I’m sure that the community needs me more than the prison
And that the only threat I can represent is to their jobs
Because my mission is to help youth get out of the streets.
So he among you who is clean of mistakes may cast a stone against me.
Emeritus
By A.R.
So Beau, tell me is there in my acts of amour
That appears to your heart?
With no answers, still I try
My hand at a woman who seems almost forbidden
My own Helen of Troy so hard to allure
Vivid displays of emotion though still she ignores
Though still I try
My hand at a woman’s amour that seems almost forbidden
So many acts of betrayal, let downs
Still
I’ve always forgiven
Who am I but a gentleman to discern love from lust
So in a conniving feline still I trust
Disappointment, disappointment, over again
This game of hearts I strive to win
My dreams often occupied with visions of her
A mere sight of her beauty
Will cause hormones, emotions together to stir
But I awake to only welcome loneliness with a reluctant embrace
This solitude maybe has driven me crazy
I’ve ventured far past Rubicon
Endowed in acts that may capture her love, or lust?
Who knows?
Often I see we’re misled by desire on uncertain path
With lust for a love one should not have
Though I…I choose to bow out gracefully
Cherie amour though your beauty is undesirable
If you feel not for me then I try no more
Emeritus
Ruined At Birth
By A.G.
Ruined
From the day I was born
To walk, running across the street
To the sound of my name being called
Almost got hit by the 96 bus
Ruined
From the day I could talk
Scared to ask questions
Because I didn’t want to feel
The belt against my butt
Ruined
From the first day I cried
But no one cared
So I wished I was dead
Ruined
From this day on no longer weak
But strong, mature and ready
To be a changed man and
Not that immature little boy
Born Ruined
About This Blog
All of the poems on this website are written by incarcerated members of Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop. This blog is a valuable link to the external community and an important outlet for their voices to be heard. Every week, we print out the comments you leave and mail them to the writers which is a huge motivator for the new poets. Unfortunately, none of our members have internet access while in jail or federal prison, so we are not able to share your “likes” with them. If you “like” a post, please also leave a comment on the poem!
Thank you for your encouraging words!
I Like But I Love
By M.A.
I like da way you smile Boo,
Like da way you fake mug 2,
I like da way you keep ur sh*t new,
From ur lashes – 2 ur clothes – 2 ur nails – 2 ur hairdo,
I like da way you move when you walk,
I like how you stay fly like a hawk,
I just like how you make a n**** wanna stalk,
I like how you be fakin – you sound sexy when you talk,
I like da way you keep me happy all da time,
I like you Baby Girl cuz you so Damn Fine,
I like da way you made me wait my whole life 4 mine,
So now we goin shine so bright we goin make dey ass blind,
I like da way you keep it real wit me,
I like da way you lie 2 me,
I like ur Taurus Person-ality,
But, I LOVE every – single – thing about YOU
Dats comin from INSIDE of ME!!
Thug Life
By D.L.
When you walking in your mom house
And you ain’t got nothing in the refrigerator
And now it to the street to bust block
Sell crack in the trap house
Mama crying wishing her baby was home
And now he in the life of drugs
Doing everything under the sun
And all you hear is thug life
That all we know
The Wrong Places
By R.D.
Looking for love, but like they say
In all the wrong places, lol
Looking for the right female, time
A lot I have been wasting.
I think I understand what they mean
About the wrong places!
You don’t always find love in people
It can be a place an object it can be anything!
Don’t waste your time chasing after humans it’s frustrating
Live life, love living, because no one knows
If they’re going to wake up in the morning
Pursuing love, but maybe we should be pursuing the things we love to do
Pursuing love, maybe you should pursue the love, of just loving you! lol
Confined
By D.H.
Being confined with the same address all the time
6oz juices and the side orders are slime
I’m discourage from coming out and succeeding
Most of the time, feel like my heart’s bleeding
Leaving is an intriguing idea I have
Because staying is like catching a right jab
You’re knocked out and locked out of society
Certainly have talents, an extensive variety
Everyday you’re collective and cool as a TomCat
The primary goal is successfully coming out of combat
It’s a fight and struggle in a way
Because good news can complicate your day
In My Lifetime
By M.B.
In my lifetime I hope to see
Me as an old person
With my gray hair and old skin.
I hope to be a part of catching
A UFO without letting it get away
So the U.S.A. can show the world
What is inside of it.
Brother
By A.G.
Who’s my brother
It’s not that I don’t have a brother
but when I was hurt, stress, down
and out, he left, he disappeared
like the weather
Am I my brother’s keeper?
I am but when I think of him my
heart gets weaker
because I know he’ll leave me leaking
Brother
All that means is that we share
the same mother
but I’ve cried for him, I’ve lied for
him, I’ve even thought of dying
for him
for my brother
I’ll give a kidney for him, a lung
for him, I’ll even rip out
my heart for him.
To save his life to show that
I’ll die for mines, that’s the
reason I’m sitting in prison
doing time
Brother I love my brother,
Brother I miss my brother
Brother I sure wouldn’t kiss my
brother –LLS-
But it still doesn’t kill the fact
That he’s my brother
Brother
My Journey
By V.M.
Day and night is to be
Successful and to succeed
I came up and came down
When it was all said and done
I was rumbling pound to pound
In my darkest nightmare
Something I ask for
An really got what I wanted
But it was not being successful
It was being the person inside
Of me what I was not trying
Fight on them streets because
I was scared of what the
World would say that was around me
It was tearing me apart
From my family and tryna be successful.
Now it’s a fed travel plan that goes from prison to prison
South Carolina, Kentucky, Colorado, California
An where does it stop
It never stops, we all have plenty of opportunity
To get back up and be successful and succeed.