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Prison Poetry Chapbooks


"The only end of writng is to enable the readers better to enjoy life or better to endure it." -Samuel Johnson

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Over Hills of the Self
Poems by students at North Country Community College
Franklin Correctional Facility
Extension Site - 1994

 

 

 Selected Poems


Weather Report

I think of you as rain
and I as dry earth cracked
beneath a cloudless, humid sky

- Michael Ewing (1994)



Thin Cushion

Thin cushion, pin cushion
on the floor by the door
rainy days, cats paw plays
Dad comes to visit, but never stays

Thin cushion, pin cushion
on the floor by a tile
rainy days always stay
for a broken-hearted child.

- Richard Heuberger (1994)

Haiku

The grandfather clock ticks.
tumble weeds blow in the wind.
Grandma blows out the candles.

Vicious winds blow hard.
In a tree the cradle rocks.
Nature screams its voice.

- Mitchel Tucker (1994)

My Heart Knows Tales

I miss the places I've been,
and the things I've done.
I miss the moonlight's gentle grace,
and I miss the setting sun.
I miss adventures I've not had
and the things I've never seen.
I miss the smell of rain-wet pines
so sharp, so pure, so clean.
My heart knows tales of wild winds,
and of grassy meadows high,
and of secret mountain passes
that greet the clear blue sky,
The sweetest places far afield
where nature knows not crime.
I miss these from my prison cell,
where I died while doing time.

- Mitchel Tucker (1994)

The Contenders

Contending against time
consciousness invented awareness,
in mutual contemplation
they walk hand in hand.
At times the best of friends
and at times the firecest foes,
while tolerating each other
they devour one another.
But never haveing enough,
keep quarreling in eternal clash.

- Jose Garcia (1994)

The Traveler

And there I was
Not by chance, often lost
in delirious considerations
practicing my final journey.
Mornings kept me imprisoned
for a lifetime,
forcing my eyes open to the light.

There was no doubting an end,
but bells, insistently, adamantly
on protracted toils,
wanted to sell me freedom
they didn't own.

- Jose Garcia (1994)

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 E-mail: mitchellh@cortland.edu

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     
     
     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The contents of this linked page have not been reviewed or approved by SUNY Cortland.