jail poetry
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On writing.
By writing, we can prove that we really do exist. But not everyone in jail has access to even as much as a sharpened pencil.
action permanence, depression, deprivation in jail, drug trip, drugs, ego death, jail commissary, jail poetry, medicine, mushroom tea, pencil sharpener, pencils, pencils in jail, Portland, psilocybin, psilocybin mushrooms, psychedelic, psychedelic drugs, psychedelic medicine, psychedelics, PTSD, PTSD cures, Sacred Knowledge, shrooms, suffering in jail, teaching in jail, teaching poetry in jail, trip, trip report, William Richards, writing, writing in jail
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On bowerbirds, process, and happiness.
In a world where not everyone wins, we can either prepare to mope or learn to enjoy the process of our lives.
abolition, abolitionism, art, attention economy, Bestiary, birds, Bower, bowerbird, bowerbirds, children, corvids, crow family life, crow intelligence, crow smarts, crows, crows using tools, Donika Kelly, goal-oriented, goals versus process, jail, jail poetry, mass incarceration, mate choice, mate selection, mating, mating behavior, non-coercive mating, parenting, poetry, process-oriented, psychology, self-actualization, self-help, sexual choice, sexual selection, social media pyramid, storytelling, suffering in jail, teaching in jail, teaching poetry, teaching poetry in jail, tool use, tropical birds, War on Drugs, writing
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On drugs and drug laws.
Humans have long restricted access to spiritual sacraments. Perhaps its not surprising that psilocybin is illegal, whereas the drugs that harm other people are easy to come by.
access to drugs, addiction, Against Life, alcohol, alcohol consumption, alcohol is the most harmful drug, alcoholism, antibiotic, antibiotic resistance, antibiotics, antibiotics in animal agriculture, archaeology, Ayelet Waldman, ballot initiative, Bay Area, Brett Kavanaugh, cocaine, Daddy Wake Up, Denver, dimethyltryptamine, DMT, drug crisis, drug laws, drug trip, drug use, drug use in the Bay Area, drugs, entheogens, hallucinations, hallucinogen, How to Change Your Mind, human drug use, incarceration, jail, jail poetry, jail time, Josh Rathkamp, Kavanaugh, magic mushrooms, mass incarceration, Michael Pollan, most harmful drugs, mushrooms, narcotics, opiate addiction, opiate epidemic, opiod addiction, opiods, opioid crisis, poetry in jail, prehistory of human drug use, prison poetry, psilocin, psilocybin, psychedelic, psychedelics, psychedelics as medicine, psychedelics drugs, psychedelics for depression, psychedelics in psychiatry, racism, racist drug laws, selective drug enforcement, selective law enforcement, sexual assault, spiritual experiences, spirituality, Supreme Court justices, teaching in jail, teaching poetry in jail, therapeutic drug trip, Travis Combs, U.S. drug policy, vegan, veganism, War on Drugs
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On vengeance and Ahmed Saadawi’s ‘Frankenstein in Baghdad.’
We all share blame for the ills perpetrated in our names, but some among us are made to suffer outsize portions of the costs.
Ahmed Saadawi, Albany, Arabic fiction, cocaine, cooperation, Correction, Correction (pt. ii), Correction part 2, corrections, evolution of cooperation, evolution of eusociality, forgiveness, forgiving, Frankenstein, Frankenstein in Baghdad, incarceration, injustice, Iraq, jail, jail poetry, Jonathan Wright, justice, Lori Milks, mass incarceration, most provable murder case I have ever seen, murder, murder victims, neurology, neuroscience, philosophy, poetry, poetry in jail, prison, public defender, punishment, rehabilitation, reprisal, restorative justice, retribution, Saadawi, teaching in jail, teaching poetry in jail, terrorism, the healing power of forgiveness, the neurology of justice, vengeance, victims of terrorism, violence, War on Drugs
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On Brett Wagner’s “Apocalypse Blaze.”
Nuclear fallout is a killer. But my friend was felled by the apocalypse that’s already upon us.
addiction, alcohol, Apocalypse Blaze, apocalyptic fiction, Bird Town TN, Bloomington, Brett Wagner, drinking, exposure, futurism, handgrith, hangrith, homelessness, incarceration, jail, jail poetry, meth, methamphetamine, nuclear apocalypse, nuclear fallout, poetry in jail, post-apocalyptic fiction, prison, prison poetry, sobriety, teaching in jail, teaching poetry in jail, unfinished novels, writing in jail
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On storytelling and social justice.
By telling powerful stories with integrity, we might inspire people to help change the world.
activism, addiction, Bloomington, consciousness as storytelling, Dave Eggers, death in jail, emotions, emotions to compel action, framing your own story, Frans de Waal, free will, incarceration, Indiana, jail, jail poetry, Lindsey Badger, mass incarceration, Max Smith, Michelle Brekke, narrative consciousness, neuroscience of consciousness, neuroscience of free will, New Leaf, New Leaf New Life, overcoming trauma, poetry in jail, prison poetry, rationality, restorative justice, storytelling, storytelling and incarceration, teaching kids to be activists, The Bloomingtonian, The Dimension Mill, the neuroscience of storytelling, The Parade, trauma, writing and incarceration, writing and social justice, writing in prison
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On empathy.
To write from another’s perspective, an author must empathize deeply with that character. And we need that sort of empathy to help us change the world.
authorial distance, autism, autism spectrum disorder, corrections, empathizing with characters, empathy, In Defense of Cultural Appropriation, incarceration, jail, jail poetry, juvenile delinquents, juvenile detention, Kenan Malik, Lost in Place, Lying Awake, Mark Salzman, mass incarceration, novelists, prison, school to prison pipeline, teaching creative writing, teaching in a corrections center, teaching in jail, teaching poetry, The Curious Indicent of the Dog in the Night Time, The Reason I Jump, True Notebooks, writing practice
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On consent.
To make a better world, we’ll need to get over our potential embarrassment and make sure that somebody’s “yes” means what we think it does.
affirmative consent, Alarming Rise of Rape Culture, album of the month clubs, ask first, Asking For It, assault, consent, elastic definitions of consent, Eve Rickert, Fatimah Asghar, Franklin Veaux, gender violence, gendered violence, incarceration, jail, jail poetry, justification, Kate Harding, masculinity, morality, More Than Two, no means no, Peggy Orenstein, poetry about gender violence, poetry in jail, positive consent, prearrange consent, rape, rape culture, rationalization, rationalizing rape, reading poetry in jail, sex while sleeping, sexual assault, sexual behavior of college students, sleeping sex, teaching poetry in jail, toxic masculinity, unwanted sex, Veaux and Rickert, violation, violative assault, When Refusing to Twerk Is a Radical Form of Self Love, When Tip Drill Comes on at the Frat Party, why do men rape, why don’t men ask first, yes means yes
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On attentiveness and names.
Some kids are exceptionally attentive to their environment … but we tell them they have an attention deficit.
abuse, ADD, adderall, addiction, ADHD, amphetamine, attention deficit, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, chemical dependence, chemistry, childhood abuse, childhood development, childhood trauma, crystal meth, crystal structure, deficit, developmental biology, dirty drop, dirty urine, disease names, diversity, doctors, drug chemistry, drug test, drug testing, evolution, Fruitless, Fruity, gene names, genetics, hedgehog, human evolution, hyperawareness, hypervigilance, incarceration, jail, jail poetry, mass incarceration, medicine, methamphetamine, names, naming genes, neurodiversity, parole, Percy Jackson, pharmacology, poetry in jail, probation, protein structure, reading, self-medication, sensitivity, sensitivity to environment, SHH, Sonic Hedgehog, Sonic Hedgehog mutation, stimulants, teaching in jail, teaching poetry in jail, The Lightning Thief, trauma, urine screen, War on Drugs
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On overdose.
Minority heroin users were anonymously demonized for decades; now they’re being killed.
cartels, cocaine, dope, Dope to the Cut, drug dealers, fentanyl, H, heroin, incarceration, jail poetry, jail poetry workshop, mass incarceration, opiates, opiods, overdose, overdose deaths, poetry, racial disparities in drug treatment, synthetic opiods, teaching in jail, teaching poetry in jail, The Washington Post, War on Drugs
Frank Brown Cloud 