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.
Strife Life
By AB aka Strife
Pain and strife, I’ve known for half my life,
Pain and strife, I’ll never quit the fight,
Pain and strife, it’s a warrior’s life,
Pain and strife, a lot of tears shed at night
Pain and strife caused me to sleep with a knife,
Pain and strife, the struggle is real in life,
Pain and strife, a lot lost the fight
Pain and strife, made me pray to God at night
Pain and strife, made me want to give up on life
Pain and strife, I finally won the fight
Pain and strife, I finally changed my life…
Thank You Allah
By WR
Thank you! Allah for letting me see a new day.
Thank you! For keeping me out of harm’s way.
Thank you! For helping me with my life,
Thank you! For finding me a good wife.
Thank you! For my family and all my friends,
Thank you! For forgiving me of all my sins.
Thank you! For giving me some wealth.
Thank you! For keeping me in good health.
Thank you! For all that you do,
So I would like to say, thank you!
To Belong Is To Be
By KW
I’m cut from what James Farmer built.
Congress, what are you forgetting about CORE?
If I belong to what made William Garrison,
Why is the next candidate in a seat not
Fully reforming?
Campaign after campaign,
Promise after promise,
Talk after talk,
Ends with no results.
John Lewis is turning in his grave.
Frederick Douglass, we are lost!
The money make ‘em forget who they
represent.
Democrats got the House,
But still don’t help right the wrongs
Of old that keep African Americans in
Prison.
I’m a fourth-generation “freed” slave.
Why do I belong more in prison,
Than in my family’s company?
Because I belong to a history that still
Demands justice.
I belong to what Ralph D. Albernathy is cut from.
Home
By AB
There’s no place like home,
Instead, the streets I chose to roam,
There’s no place like home.
I wish the older guys in the community would have taught me or
Shown, the time I’m doing is hard and long.
Now I’m stuck and all alone,
I came to prison as a kid but now I’ve grown
I’d give both arms and both feet to just be home.
I’ve made a promise to myself to teach the youth that there’s no place like home
And to never leave our loved ones all alone.
Because there’s no place like home…
Pride
By NL
Every June you see the celebration
The outfits and confetti
A myriad of colors that fill every major city
A coronation for all the kings, queens, and everyone in-between
Who dared to walk their own path to freedom
And ours
Our journeys are different, but sadly tend to look the same
You see the dancing in the streets but not the pain he felt when dad said, “You’re not my son”
You see the signs with LOVE displayed but not the signs of depression from years of isolation by the cool kids
You see the flags but not the crying as grandma had the minister exorcise her
‘Cause she wanted to exercise her right to love
You hear the music but not the tears that ran as we plotted our escape
From families, religions, and expectations
From painful experiences that told us and showed us
We are not enough
Somehow, some way we found the grace that was not given to us
And grace the world with our presence
Choosing to embody the essence of love
And use it to pave the way for a brighter future
A future many have tried to deny us
But we stood up and fought
From Stonewall to Pulse
We bared a cross that was not always ours to carry
Pride is a painful past, a hopeful present, and a bright future
Pride is pain and struggle
Pride is love and redemption
Pride is hands held with former enemies turned family
Even if it means we get no apology
It is the continued fight to see and be seen
To live as the unapologetic heirs to the throne HE said we are
Pride is everything
Nothing and nobody can take it from us
Because it lives within us and seeps into everything we do
Pride, we didn’t always have it but we have it now
And we live loud and proud because we deserve to
Flight
By MH
The noise is deafening.
My heart pounding in my chest,
Louder than the sound of the plane’s engines.
Excitement, anxiety, longing is excruciating.
People all around me: so close, yet so far.
A sound came and added the excruciating wait
Announcing, “We will shortly depart. Fasten in your seat.”
This flight is not just my freedom flight.
This flight has taken me home.
This flight has taken me to where I took my first breath.
This flight has taken me to where my eyes first opened and saw the light.
This flight has taken me to the Tigris River: to where I took my first sip of water.
This flight has taken me to where I took my first steps on this beautiful earth.
This flight has taken me to my family: to their hearts and eyes.
This flight has taken me to my friends, to my neighborhood, to my city.
This flight has taken me to regain my memory.
In every person and corner of the city,
The memories are forever alive: the tragedies and happiness.
This flight has taken me to the soccer field I played on and the joy it brought.
To the marketplace; to the schools I attended.
This flight has taken me to where a young heart fell in love, innocent and pure.
This flight has tak…
Suddenly something is pulling me out of my seat
A noise—a horrible, familiar noise came!
The sound of the prison officer’s keys clinging wakes me.
I awake to find myself back in a cell, and it was but a dream.
I will never stop dreaming until my dream becomes a reality.
I will keep the ticket and reschedule my flight.
Un-Named
By DS
The Dragon is inside of me roaring to be free.
Word to George Jackson, Angela Davis, and Assata Shakur.
When I read those books, their stories left me
Thirsting for more.
Discipline is the foundation; the core to survive
The struggle, I work my body until it’s sore, take a shower,
Then read some more.
You see, the words on the page are the food we eat.
The knowledge we gain is the tools we use to get
Free.
One thousand burpees on the yard. Well-disciplined.
Going hard to make it home. No room for weakness.
Suckas a pull ya card. They always more than one
‘Cause they really ain’t hard.
In tune with the Leaders and Ancestors before me,
Who left behind their Spiritual Energy, which remains strong.
We still fighting so they live on.
Discipline got me surviving 72 hours in the box.
Every three days, a five-minute shower.
Word to Albert Woofdox and the Angola 3.
R.I.P., Shaka.
43 years on 23 and one.*
Discipline got me doing push-ups on my fists until my
Knuckles are numb.
Behind these walls, to be Disciplined is a weapon.
Stayin’ strong and focused: Meditation and stretchin’.
From the Books, I study the lessons
Of those gone and still living.
Even though my peoples are physically free,
They’re still trapped in a mental prison.
It’s going to take a lot of discipline for us to see
The day of truer living
A lot of love
And a lot of giving.
*23 and one refers to solitary confinement, with 23 hours per day in a cell and one hour outside the cell.
Smile
By JS
I breathe in I breathe out,
I smile.
I breathe in I breathe out,
I smile.
I breathe in I breathe out,
I smile.
Body and mind became 1 and once again
I smile
I open my eyes and I am in a cell
but I feel like I am on a cloud.
Me and My Teddy Bear
By AJ
I have a teddy bear in my cell.
I don’t feel lonely.
He makes me feel like a boy.
I hug and kiss my soft plush teddy bear before I go to sleep.
I’m playful with him.
Sometimes I think he acknowledges me.
He warms my heart.
I offer my teddy bear Honey Buns,
Even though I know I will not get an answer.
When I’m away from my cell, I miss him.
I read touching letters from my family to Uriah, my teddy bear.
One day, I wept from sorrow in my heart
And noticed tears coming down from my teddy bear’s eyes.
Stuck In My Ways
By AC
I was just stuck in my ways for a minute
I was lost trying to find my way with God, I was sinning
Now I’m trying to make it off my music independent
I ain’t taking no handouts so please don’t be offended
Different thoughts started to go through my mind I started to see the bigger picture
Why not tell my story if that can be the reason I get richer
Calculate my moves since baby always been that figure
Different mindset than others I’m moving on a different level
I know I’ma be something in the industry thinking about my first chain and bezel
It took a while before I started to see a light in this tunnel
So I pick up on a lesson, be cordial and remain humble
Running through different obstacles trying not to fall or fumble
Got to move like a Spirit around the temptation and start doing things elite
Like skipping different states traveling the world in the telly Presidential Suites
So I’ma stay focused and play for keeps
So I can see life with a wealthy point of view and never be cheap
Concrete Rose
By JP
After the novel Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas
I struggle, embedded in the pavement, my fight is everlasting, the elements are against me but my will to survive is far greater than the obvious destruction around me. The things that are supposed to destroy me I use to strengthen my resolve. I call on God when I am weak, he answers my prayers because in him I place my faith to rise from the bricks of this concrete jungle where it seems no one cares…
I grow through this hectic life, I face all fears that try to strangle my existence, I weather the storms, the rain quenches my thirst and washes me clean. When the sun shines bright I smile with hope feeling at times the light is on me and I’ll be seen. I perk up, thorns sharp from a hard life, but beautifully created, battled tested and strong, yet alone, yearning for a place in this big ole world to call my own, my will to win on display for someone, anyone to take me away from this concrete jungle I call home…..
I stay warm hearted as I shake and shiver because in the concrete it’s cold outside, no place to run, no place to hide. I grow into the best me I can be, my trials and tribulations prepared me for life’s ills, the growing pains makes me hungry with a purpose to starve no more. My roots remain planted from which I came, the life I once knew no longer the same. Uprooted but forever from the bricks, timeless moments of my past now shape my future, I see why God chose me, my life now a living testimony for all to know and see a product of my environment, a Beautiful Rose I grew from the Jungle, the Bricks, the Concrete….
Black Superman
By RL
I use to look up to Superman
I really looked up to Superman
The thing that use to get me
Is how he fly around the city
Close my eyes at night
Wondering if a little black boy could reach
Those same heights
Look back on my life’s thesis
Grandma prayed to a white Jesus
Black preachers telling white lie for the
Right reasons
Uncle doing drugs til he OD not breathing
Told my mother all I want for Christmas
Was a Superman action figure that’s fact
But she gave me steel
I was like ill
I don’t want that
Everybody know superheroes can’t be black
I use to look up to Superman
I really looked up to Superman
The thing that use to get me
Is how he fly around the City
Close my eyes at night
Wondering if a little black boy could reach
Those same heights