#prisoners
Lawrence Hall, HSG
[email protected]
Such Men Will Someday Live in Palaces
Cf. Saint Matthew 11
For
El Senor Bueno
The Artist
The Dangerous Intellectual
The Philosopher
I am only a visitor here, unqualified to speak
Of the incessant sufferings of men of God
Who may not go beyond the compassing wire
To see a reed shaken with the wind
For they sometimes are wind-struck reeds themselves
Planted for a time in this desert of penance
But they are men, and do not easily shake -
When the bitter wind blows they stand up straight
They do not raise their fists against the wind
But rather their hearts in manly strength and faith
Such men will someday live in palaces
Sep 24, 2024
Sep 24, 2024 at 9:15 AM UTC
Race 2
Same old **** going down
Graves of men now silent
Nowt much happening here
Just dead bodies buried
After being riddled blasted
Russians killed by Ukrainians
Prisoners mostly of Wagner
Sentences cut lives now cut
Politicians bathe in blood
They had quite a run
Still race in Part 2
Race 1 was a loss
No victory only death
Plus injuries and ruin
Battlefield injuries extreme
It's fine there's time
So much time here
Satan has all the time
In the world
Wait and see
May 7, 2023
May 7, 2023 at 10:35 PM UTC
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
Offenders
to St. Jude – a petition for prisoners
In the system they’re called offenders
No one knows why; the offenses are over
Concrete dorms, three-high bunks, white uniforms
And overhead the sting of fluorescents
I’m not going all Pollyanna here
All of them know the poisonous passions of ****
The stench of blood, the sting of fluorescents
In fearing eyes in a gas station at night
The stench of cells, the sting of fluorescents
In glaring eyes in the booking area at night
Humiliations, transports, stripped and searched
Form a straight line with hands behind your backs
But still, a man’s a man
The difference between a man inside the wire
And a man outside the wire
Is often only that one man is inside the wire
And the other man is outside the wire
“For all have sinned…”
Christmas is coming
Will there be a letter from home?
St. Jude, help all of us to be better men
In spite of ourselves
Dec 10, 2021
Dec 10, 2021 at 7:49 AM UTC
‘Man’s Search for Meaning’
rests upon the garden table
Neon yellow highlights drawn almost to the last word
but leaving it, dangling
Two cups of coffee accompanied
She talks and talks unceasing
Not a breath to inspire
Not a pause
Not a subject
Not a point
Nor conclusion
KAW keh KAW KAW!!!!
KAW KAW!!!!!
The chin never stops.
He looks away
Returning her a brief glance
One Banana, Two Banana
Barely looking her in the eye
His earbuds resting down below his shoulders
But close enough and ready
To block out the sound
And yet
He won’t stick them in
and shut out
mania
A maniac
Nodding
on the rare occasion
However briefly
He looks away
Turning his head politely to
Drag one more time on that joint
A morning joint that won’t survive her onslaught of words
There’s just not enough time what with him pulling away on me like that?!
He drags on his ****
Making sure he’s alive
Are you still there buddy?
Luckily you don’t have ears, eh!
He drags again
More attentive to the filter and the
Slim
White
Stretch between his fingers
Just like the other one
The one in his pants
Close enough to the side pocket
He picks at the lint on his Adidas
And examines his fingernails
Pulls at his ****** hair
Stealing a suspicious
Narrow eyes glance back at her
She leans in and stare at the earthen floor
The leaves have been swept away
She wears little
Blessed with an ample ***** but no brain
She keep her robes open
She can cook and sweep the floors
And talk and talk and talk
But will this keep him?
He’s smiling now
Laughing, ******
He’ll make it through to lunchtime
She’s off to the kitchen ‘for a sec’
And look, he’s on his phone
To another one so far undetetected
He’s grinning
Maybe there a pictures!
I know someone in Mexico
who keeps hers
in very fine high quality cigars
He knows about such things
And there used to be one up the street
who sported very short shorts
In hopes of keep him distracted
or preoccupied
The space filled alongside her
In her bed at night
In the distance,
The Spanish Evangelicals Sing!
And Sing!
Endless!
Rejoicing!
It’s been hours!
Sometimes there really is
no excuse to wear yoga pants
But the vaccine is here
And things could get shaky
Unstable
The eyes having begun their wandering
in advance of the Summer Solstice
And it’s very nearly time to advertise.
Leaving their outdoor table
He makes a quick exit
To another assignation
And alone
He’s run away!
She opens the book again
Just a few pages left
She’s almost done
Yellow pen in hand
mouth closed
May 10, 2021
May 10, 2021 at 12:40 PM UTC
Lawrence Hall
[email protected]
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com
A Song of the Lord in a Foreign Land
“How could we sing a song of the Lord in a foreign land?
-Psalm 137
By the waters of the common sinks and stinks
They sat and wept, remembering their homes
Upon the razor wire they hung their hopes
(Let my tongue be silent during roll call)
Their captors asked of them throughout the hours
Straight lines to the chow hall, well made-up bunks
On time to their classes and work details
(Let my tongue be silent during roll call)
The lyrics of their songs were written by night
The notes and tones well-tuned to concrete walls
How could they sing songs of the Lord?
How not?
(Let my tongue be silent during roll call)
We all are exiles in a foreign land
(Let our tongues sing praise after roll call)
(After over a year of lockdowns, volunteers are allowed back into Texas prisons today, Wednesday, Saint Patrick’s Day, 17 March 2021. Saint Patrick, too, was a prisoner.)
Mar 17, 2021
Mar 17, 2021 at 8:31 AM UTC
<~>
People become
prisoners
in diff'rent ways,
lucky ones
free themselves,
exhaling lumps
from their throats,
getting out
of their prisons
sharing their
life experiences
via prose and poetry,
metamorphosing
into,
diverse poets,
ranting...narrating,
gathered in one
common space...like,
Hello Poetry,
a Home
to a huge
republic of letters...
<~>
Sally
© Rosalia Rosario A. Bayan
Aug 25, 2020
Aug 25, 2020 at 10:15 AM UTC
We are neither boundaries or fields,
for both even though seem to be free,
keep us confided,
even though we don't realise it.
We may be able to walk afar,
but if we are stalled by others,
we are still prisoners
of a further field of consciousness.
Feb 15, 2020
Feb 15, 2020 at 2:38 PM UTC
Prisoner's love ...
Fulfill my character ...
it's my nature ...
never ever to cheat ...
the heart ...
if i loved ...
Fulfill my character ...
and inside my heart ...
those feelings ...
which it never die ...
lives within me ...
day by day ...
years by years ...
and still as i am , me ...
as i wrote all my poems ...
and it have same what i said ...
never to change hearts ...
it's a one hear ...
the heart that i love ...
never to cheat ...
prisoner i am ...
to one heart ...
to whom i gave ...
my heart ...
as the prisoner in his jail ...
has no rights ...
to change his jail ...
as the sun ...
as the moon ..
and it's stars ...
could it changes it's place ...
sure and not ...
it never could change ...
as me sweetheart ...
i fell into your love ...
got that prisoner ...
into your jail ...
and happy to be there ...
there into your heart ...
as prisoner's love ...
only for you ...
would you accept me ...
as a prisoner ...
if yes ...
come in with me ...
and close after you ...
the door ...
hazem al ...
Aug 25, 2019
Aug 25, 2019 at 4:00 AM UTC
We are free!
We live in the land of opportunity,
With multicultural integrated communities,
Thank you elders for preaches, speeches of unity;
But now............;
I am sad, sad, sad, sad, sad;
The innocent live in a electronic prison,
And worst, some are slaves to the nation;
2017 the clink of the chain is replaced with a silent hum,
Even the whir of the brain computer interface machine disappears in the atmosphere glum;
We don't hear or see chains drag and clink,
As the imprisoned human's walk in sync,
The mainstream public unaware do not have a chance to bethink,
A spokes person will arise through the new generation,
With peaceful preaches, speeches to each Royal monarch,
And member's of Parliament to abolish electronic restraint's.
Aug 18, 2017
Aug 18, 2017 at 11:26 AM UTC
School is like a prison.
not in the traditional sense,
Students must do as the warden says,
completing work or receiving a penalty,
act a certain way or be punished.
And if they don't complete their sentence,
they are doomed to a life that could be better
Feb 13, 2016
Feb 13, 2016 at 12:01 PM UTC
We were holding hands when we heard it,
The siren, like the call of damnation
Like a calling greet your inevitable end
Lost in the moment of ourselves.
We were in the field, how could
I,
Me,
Her,
Us, be so stupid. The flickering moments
Of light, hope fading with each decreasing
Quiver of daylight.
The shade was nearly upon us
Grasping at our ankles.
We reached the town of ill fated name sake,
"WELCOME TO DARKNESS HOLLOW"
"Population 3,000"
Not no where near that now,
It was like a **** had taken hold, we were in
A mountainous region where shadow had
Bathed the outskirts of town on any given
Time,
Season,
Light,
Was like a gift to this pocket of unobscured bliss.
I still have their touch,
corroded flesh fragmented. It still feels
As if their still holding on, like a frigid burning.
"Come on baby,
Breath was against us as if less to inhale,
Succumbing to extinct motions
We grappled with the door hinges motionless.
"Joshua it mike,
"Is everyone inside,
"Ye why?
As the door is hit, and inch by inch succumbs to
Mike force, as it encircles his presence
A last hit reverberates,
And like a tomb sealed with in.
"Mike, Mike.....,
.....
....
...
..
Joshu.....
And he was as the others gone in shadow.
Blazing lights eliminated every inch,
We had been a place of so many
Now few greeted our perspective.
"Its my fault, mike was our friend,
"It was a choosing, I would have done it,
"...........,
Silence was words spoken in here,
Words bleed echoing over concealed air
"The solar batteries should keep us lit,
"If any should flicker,
"Shadow will entangle that moment,
"North block is a no go,
North block, but half the town was....
How is this surviving?
"Son come here,
"Who me,
God I felt stupid as there was only me and him!
"This is all wrong, ye hear that,
"??????"
A puzzled look on my face, with a piece missing?
"We are the shadow,
"Were prisoners in these shells,
"???????,
Is what he babbles upon truth,
"That mark is your true form,
"But the flesh is warped, to touch is cold
"That is light corrupting your true form,
"This is a shell of lies, polished thoughts invading your mind,
"Do you remember your....,
She had covered his mouth, baby what you doing?
She had a look in her posture, in her eyes.
"Baby what you...,
"He spoken to much, what did he speak of,
As he shuddered light permeated as he bleed
Shards of crystalline light,
"STOP,
But it was to late, he was their and then,
Just a wisp of shadow rose up.
But even that she grasped, encircled,
As if a sun had birthed in clasped hands.
Then but ash fell and he was nothing more.
"What the hell did you just do,
"You killed him?
"What did he,
"What did you do,
Then a flash of memory, awoken thought,
The time before, in perpetual twilight.
Then they came, shackled is I'm mortal form,
Caged in bone, but now the truth shone through.
" You have been here since light burst through the veil,
"They have tried to free you from this purgatory,
"We created man to be a vessel to keep you sullen,
"Why we never did anything,
"You existed that was enough for us,
"So few left now the purge must begin,
Loved ones clasped there hands on startled others
As cracks bleed lights corruption, and then wisps
Where as before suspended in their grasp.
"Why I thought you loved me,
"I did for a while opposites can attract.
"But It was I that burnt you,
"With what was a loving touch,
But we are two parts of one why do you...
"Your scream dulled my light,
"I am light darkness has no place,
"It only consumes what was birthed so long ago,
I watched as so many screamed,
Then silence,
Then ash,
Fell like snow, death greeted the floor.
I'm are the last one, they are coming for me.
All that will be found is remnants of what was,
"I LOVE YOU,
"I always have but if was forbidden,
I run towards her, but our touch is shimmered,
Our true forms birthed and I see the beauty
I always saw inside,
"There is an in-between twilight moment,
"Meet me there,
And then I was outside, darkness seeped in solitude
And then imprints movement greeted me,
A hand exited and held with haste.
It retreated to the place where it was always seen.
"She loves you, you know that,
The town was immersed in light, fragmenting into
A clouded haze, a region of neither darkness or light,
Particles tainted, grazed upon both, neither could
Now exist in the place. She did this for me,
I thought she.... I don't know what to think.
I waited in twilights moment, time has no meaning
It was though time stood still, but I felt every
Minute,
Second,
Time
Was stagnant without her in my grasp. could I live
Knowing that wisp of light in my darkness was
Extinguished without last words upon our lips.
A wisp of light erratically glides towards me,
"It is but a firefly
"Be gone little light that flutters by,
Trails of light emanated and form took shape,
My eyes even though in twilights glare knew
That form anywhere. She was before me, I
Am so sorry my love if they had for a moment
Knew of my hearts desire I would have been like he
Who became ash in my palm.
"We are of opposites,
"A collision of positive, negative force,
"But my heart breathes true,
"We can have the twilight,
"Where either merges in a dance of eternity,
This is our time, shells now gone,
"You look beautiful,
Hands merged in essence and a display
Of light and darkness in shades never seen
Danced upon the air and sky.
Love is never a separation, but a bonding of
Opposites that attract from any distance near or far.
Sep 26, 2015
Sep 26, 2015 at 3:19 PM UTC
Struggle is joy and the wait is enjoyment
While the achievement is the name of a state
Where we spend our lives as prisoners
Of fear of being a loser in any time
I chose to wait in the state of struggle
and don't like to be a prisoner
Mar 26, 2015
Mar 26, 2015 at 8:48 PM UTC
We are all prisonors
Of this place called life
Every man is imprisoned
And also every wife
Society is the warden
In this prison without walls
And society does it's work
Without any flaws
There is no way to escape
It's impossible to do
Even if you might have
A brother with a big tattoo
Yes there is really
No way in this life
You will find a way
To get out of it alive
Feb 1, 2015
Feb 1, 2015 at 5:38 PM UTC
I’m crouched in the same dark cold corner.
The empty damp corner of my cell.
The corner I’ve sat in for so long.
The corner I know so well.
Every chip in the paintwork.
Every damp patch on the floor.
I know this corner.
It’s the same as it was when I came before.
But it now seems I’m here forever.
There’s no getting out this time.
I’m going to sit in this same lonely corner,
till my spirit goes and I die.
The cold, the damp, the hunger pains.
The feeling of being alone.
The loneliness of waking up,
and seeing the walls you’ve seen for so long.
No one around, nothing to call your own.
The feeling and warmth of the sun shining through.
I jump up and down to try get a view.
But the hole is too high, I can’t even smell,
and nobody hears me if I yell.
But what’s the point of sitting here each day?
Time goes by - Boredom...Decay.
No one now thinks of me, nobody cares.
I might as well be dead or not even born.
The day I die, leave this hole,
will be my liberation away from it all.
Copyright: Gordon Warren (1986)
Jun 16, 2014
Jun 16, 2014 at 5:09 PM UTC
Sometimes my memories sneak out of my eyes
and roll down my cheeks
These prisoners always find a way to escape,
When tension reaches its peak
Off into the night
Where everything I invision becomes bleak
Sometimes my mind doesn't follow my footsteps
and leaves my heart hollow
These prisoners derive themselves out of feelings that were ever so potent
But now..
I realize what chances are overlooked when words remain unspoken .
-Tamera Brown
Apr 22, 2014
Apr 22, 2014 at 8:03 PM UTC