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

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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.

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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

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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

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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!!

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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