What If
What if I went to school and did what I had to do?
What if I come home and got a job?
What if I hadn’t gotten locked up- what would I be doing at home?
What if I could make a big change?
What if I could tell people that jail is not a place to be?
What if I could be something real big in life?
What if I can come home and make money by writing poems?
What if someone come to me and say, “I like your poems”?
What if I could put a smile on everyone’s face when they read my poems?
What if I can go somewhere from my poems?
What if I could write a book for everyone to read?
What if lawyers come up here and tell me I’m going home?
What if the people in court can see that I’m not a bad person?
What if I tell people that this is coming from my heart?
What if I tell people that me being locked up hurts my mom and aunt?
What if someone read my poem, and they tell me that they want to help me get my poems out there so everyone could read them?
All I can say is what if.
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The poets featured here 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. Post your comments, feedback, and encouragement in the space below the poem. 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.
What if you realize your own intelligence? What if you realize that you don’t need anyone else’s approval? This poem shows a real willingness to open yourself up to both encouragement and criticism, and that is fantastic. Have you made bad choices? Yes. Is there a future for you? Absolutely. Please keep writing, because there is real genius flowing from your pen. The only future crime you could commit would be keeping your poetry to yourself.
Wow, this is a really powerful poem and extremely good. I loved the repeated use of ‘What if’, which is a phrase that has can cause a lot of emotions in people. I also really liked how you question both things in the past already done and future possibilities. You seem really talented and brave to be so honest with your poetry and if it counts for anything, your poem has at least made me smile :-).
There is some real honesty that flows out of this poem. This is one of the most affecting poems I have read on this blog. I want to commend you – it’s really excellent.
I don’t really see a great deal to add to improve this poem. It gets to the heart of the matter, speaks honestly, uses real feelings and emotions.
Great job. I really enjoyed it!