Let me start off by saying initially I was hesitant when I first noticed “Humans of San Quentin” on my tablet. My thoughts were, “What do I have in common with individuals on the other side of the country?” Answer: everything. I was blown away to see how progressive the west coast was in regards to helping those incarcerated find, or should I say maintain, their humanity. Bravo!!!
And I was inspired by Alex Ross’s story and how the founder placed a hot potato of responsibility upon him and he in turn grew from it and is now the organization’s director of poetry.
Well, I am a resident of Philadelphia and I have been incarcerated for a little over six months. Since being here I have begun to put pen to paper, or more so, the pen and paper have summoned me. I look forward to freedom, but most of all I crave change and writing. Self-reflections, poetry, in addition to crafting a novel. I would say I am doing my best to invest this time and not just count days, but make each day count. If at all possible, I would love to be a spoke in this wheel of positivity which undoubtedly Humans of San Quentin has become.
Free Your Mind
Free your mind and the rest will follow. Freedom not in the physical sense of the world as one would view a horse running free through a field. Or the freedom one perceives as being able to come and go as they please.
No…I am speaking of that freedom from mental bondage. That inescapable cell that we can build in our minds. The prison with walls that we can neither see nor touch, but still has the power to hold a man down better than any chains could ever do. This prison’s warden goes by the name of fear and is kept under control by the guards of self-doubt.
They tell him that he is undeserving of those finer things in life and that he is destined to wallow in that canyon of despair. Now there are ways out of this prison. Not a physical escape as if one would scale a wall, but a mental breakout which only he can do. He must use the ropes of self-love so that he can climb over the walls of self-hatred. He must use that shovel of hope, so that he can dig his way out of that pit of hopelessness. And once he has escaped from his self-imposed tomb, he must then pass on his tools of mental liberation to others still trapped in their invisible cells of mental incarceration.
New World
This is a new world.
Ain’t no such thing as a new world? It is just an old world with new people acting new or maybe the new old people are just being true.
True? True to who?
True to the fact that ain’t no such thing as an old person. It is just you got old people who you thought you once knew.
Oh…true.
See a person does not so much change, because they are who they were before they got here.
Ohhh. true.
So be thankful and become better not bitter.
If you look, the only difference is if you switch up your mood along with those two
Letters (i and e)…
You mean, i before e?
Well to grow you will need i over e
You mean to have your intellect over your emotions?
Man..you are starting to see
Thanks.
You are welcome. But thank the darkness not me. Because when it is the darkest the eyes are blind but the mind and heart combine and provide “sight” into matters the eyes are not equipped to see.
So there is no such thing as a new world per se, it is the same old world, it is just that we wake up to a new day, a new time, a new moment, a new life…
Ohhh…so…true!
And therefore there is no new people, just old people seeing things from a place of a new perspective which appears new.
Man…that’s deep.
If deep is real, the real is what is really new.
True…so…so…true
My hopes are that before it is over “we” get to meet “us” and “us” get to meet the real “you”
Big Mom-Ma Gone
Where big Mom-Ma at?
Man…big Mom-Ma gone..
You sure about that?
Go ahead and check, matter of fact, let me call
you right back,
You gonna call me back?
Absolutely, hold on one second, did you get paid yet?
Huh?
Big Mom-Ma gone
Big Mom-Ma ain’t gone
Well go ahead and check…matter of fact, let me
Call you right back.
Then I doubled backed to 2806 W. Master street to
a place where all family and free use to meet.
Where there were once GOOGOLS (an enormous number)
Of aunts and uncles and cousins galore…but today
I do not recognize the new family who opened the door.
Big Mom-Ma gone..
You sure about that? You sure that the family
who overflowed with love and concern for one
Another ain’t coming back!?!
Well now I am left with instagram, facebook,
and a host of other social media outlets.
To stay in touch. But no inanimate object can
Compare to a big Mom-Ma hug.
Big Mom-Ma gone and they say she ain’t
Coming back. Ever wonder if she sometimes
Peeks down from heaven? Would she come down?
Would she now recognize us? More importantly,
Would we recognize her?
I would tell on all of us..I am telling big Mom-Ma
…they do not care no more.
Well they care about, who is doing what and what is
doing who….there is plenty of smiles, shout outs
And a ton of love sent via text. But we do not
Meet up no more “Big Mom-Ma” I guess when
You left, you took the glue that held us
Together. You were our “North Star” which we
Relied upon, so we would not get lost, no matter
How dark it may have become. Ironically, we will
All eventually meet back up again…lol so in
Reality, “Big Mom-Ma ain’t gone” (smile) I just gotta go meet Big Mom-Ma
And since we all come from big Mom-Ma, we ain’t “leaving” big Mom-Ma we are just
Going back (smile)!
