Corrections_Today_November_December_2022_Vol.84_No.6

COMMUNICATIONS & PUBLICATIONS

To the left is a group poem written by the Douglas County Jail class of 2004. This group poem says so much, but the line which caught my attention was, “I write because I want to catch my dream by the tail before it runs out of the house.” This group of people may have very different reasons telling their stories but hopefully, when they are finished, they can “put them out before they burn me”. Mr. Daldorph, who has spent many years working with prisoners in his creative writing class, says much about so many topics, but the language is jumps off the page each time they write bringing meaning to the title, “Words is a powerful thing!” There are many poems about addiction, about being locked up, for family who is loved but often not seen. And while the words they write are powerful and tell a story, it is their ability to write these stories and have someone care about the words which makes this book such a powerful read. There are many more stories, both of the inmates who write and the volunteers who come in week after week. In chapter 14, “It’s Just So Much More Than a Poetry Class,” Katherine Dinsdale writes: “I was relieved I wasn’t found to be an imposter, one just pretending to want to be there because I wanted to gawk at their misfortune and be greedy for their story. The truth is that the opposite is true.” For these people who go into prisons, I do not remember ever finding one who is giving of their time to gawk at their misfortune and be greedy of their stories. Reading this book and the many poems within, I am reminded of the hundreds of volunteers who do not enter to gawk. They enter to provide hope. I also remember many times hired staff don’t provide these unpaid staff the courtesy they should. These folks make institutions safer and provide hope. Thank you. ♦ Graphic: istock/Yulya Bortulyova

I write because I write because no one else will write what’s in my crazy head …

I write because I can’t get high. Because I am in a cement hell, Because it helps keep me sane. I write because I get locked down.

I write because it helps me to remember my past. Because it brings a pretty smile to my kids’ faces. Because it helps me heal some of my past… Because the guards think I’m crazy when I talk to myself,

Because it releases built-up emotion. I write because I enjoy the silence… I write because I want to catch my dream by the tail before it runs out of my house. I write because then I’m not afraid anymore. I write because stories in my head are on fire, and I have to put them out before they burn me.

— Group poem by Douglas County Jail Class of 2004

I have been alone Looking through the windows of my eyes into my soul one views an abyss that is dark and cold motivated by money, in the pursuit of material things plus my carnal cravings make me a pitiful human being afflicted by addiction; infested with rage plagued by an innocence stolen at an early age misled by false friends, betrayed by their lies in this life of shit, I’m Lord of the Flies I’m not playing victim for I know where blame dwells It sits with me in this concrete cell seated at the right hand of my throne because misery loves company and I hate to be alone.

— Sanchez-Day

58 — November/December 2022 Corrections Today