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.
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My Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day is a day of love
A day to show your loved ones
How much you love them
even care about them
My Valentine’s Day is okay,
but would’ve been better
if I could’ve spent it
With my girl and my mother
But meanwhile I pray to God
And thank him for loving me
and for loving everybody that’s alive
and I believe in him
All I can say is that
I’ll be home soon
to spend my Valentine’s
good with my love ones
Where I Have Been, What I Have Learned
Where have I been? I have been thru it all
From a cell to feelin’ like I have been living hell
Sometimes it feels all like a dream
Then I blink once then twice
And realize it’s all here
And I’m right on the scene
Now I realized I made mistakes
I have big dreams
I ask God to forgive my sin
Where have I been? I been thru it all
Where have I been? I been behind them white prison walls
Where have I been? I have been on this place called earth
Where I seen my brother fall
Where have I been?
Do you really want to know?
I’ve been places where you can’t even receive a phone call
It feel like I been thru it all
What have I learned?
I have learned when I fall to crawl
To never steal what I have learned
To always try my best
I’m not on earth to try to impress
What have I learned?
To take life for what it’s worth
To never steal from my mom’s purse
What have I learned?
To never follow always lead
To never cop out always fight it ‘til it bleeds
Or have succeed
I’ve learned sometimes
It might not hurt to freeze
That way you won’t get burned
My Face
I think my face is only a disguise
2 hide the pain you cannot see
Because if my face was my heart
You’ll probably see a different
And another half of me is bitter
And another half is sweet
But I try 2 keep
My skeletons buried 6 feet
I am only 18 but my life is so deep
But from the view of my face
My secrets are kept 4 keeps…
I’m a Victim of Circumstance
I am a victim of circumstance
But being a victim of circumstance made me who I am
When faced with a challenge
I’ll do enough to get by
Get mad if I don’t win
Because I know I didn’t really try
I was upset to be here
And even though I’m longing for freedom
I’m blessed to be alive
Because of this I don’t bite, stress, or cry
Even when I get bad calls about loved ones that died.
Tic-Toc
Tic-toc goes the heartbeat of my life
I’m sittin’ still watchin’ my life pass me by
I close my eyes I don’t want to cry
But trapped like an animal
doesn’t make you feel like a man
Tic-toc my life is passin’ me by
I reach out to catch it
But it flows right through my hand
Today feels like yesterday
Ever gonna end
When will my new day begin
Tic-toc
Mom
I use to always tell you to keep your head up
Tears dropping from your eyes
I know you fed up
Mom I’m sorry for all the pain I put you through
Love
In Love is to hate in a love way
To start from the bottom and work your way to the top
Love is way good but you must have dislikes
because if you come to a relationship with everything right then it ends wrong
because you have everything that a relationship needs to build
so don’t start from the top go for the bottom
Build your love, don’t start with love
always have something to bring you close then to take you apart
Black Boy
Black boy, black boy
What you gon’ do when they come for you?
You better run, you better hide
You better try and save your life
But you better not fight
You will die, there’s no might
Do you really want to sleep forever tonight?
But if you run and you hide
They will find you
They will kill you
So what is there to do, Black boy?
Know when to run and know when to fight
But don’t run, ‘cause you’re scared to lose your life
And don’t fight ‘cause you want to take theirs
Black boy is the call that you’re known by
You hit that pac cause you wanted your own high
You listen at night
But you’re frightened by your own cry
Tortured by your own life
But you know you can win
Just hold it in
Black boy, black boy
You would leave, but he’s already there
In fact, he’s everywhere
It’s okay
You listen and hide
Black boy, black boy
Oh you run
But there’s no where to hide
Black boy, black boy
It rangin, he’s already here
Okay, you’ll do it
You face the enemy
You look around
A weapon is nowhere to be found
The place you were in starts to spin
Then you look up and it’s a mirror
Black boy, black boy
You were runnin’ and hidin’ all along
The enemy was the inner me
Black boy, black boy
What you gon’ do when they come for you?
Pain
Pain is what I feel, pain is the water
Being released from my eyes as I write
Pain, pain is my mother’s motivation to keep believing
I can change which I’m doin’
Pain, pain is the wrongful stir in my soul
That changes rethinking
Pain, pain is my anger
To be more, to be stronger, to be smarter
Pain, pain, is blood sweat tears, love, lust, envy
Pain, pain, is what must come to grow, to learn, to build
Pain, pain is all I’ve been feeling since
That day
(As I rise so will the pain)
My Race
My Race, My Race, is so divided
Sometimes I cry, with fears I can’t try
My Race, My Race is so envious, so selfish,
So arrogant to everything
My Race, My Race, was once extraordinary
Purposeful beautiful intelligent creative investable
My Race, My Race
Where do I go with hope, with dreams
With support, with sense, in life, without my Race
My Race will rise, with strength, sense, responsibly
With creator, with loyalty my race
What must fall must rise
My race
Special Love
Being in love means
no cheating
No fighting each other
Always listening to what each other has to say at all times
Respecting each other
And loving one another
Love is special
It’s a feeling of joy
Love makes you happy
And love makes you sad
But at the end of the day
You glad
Because you can love
Love is like a dream
And it’s not always what it seems
But it’s a good feeling
When you can love
A human being