poetry
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No matter how fervently we shout, judge, or legislate, children’s bodies will still have been affected by all the chemicals to which they were subjected.
Children deserve care that helps their bodies match their brains … especially since our cavalier treatment of these children’s environment has probably helped cause the mismatch.
Andrew Solomon, androgens, biological sex, chemical exposure, chromosomal sex, David Cole, David French, developmental biology, discrimination, endocrine disrupting chemicals, endocrine disruptors, exposure to endocrine disruptors, Far from the Tree, fetal exposure, gender, gender affirming care, gender affirming care ban, gender legislation, health, hormone replacement therapy, hormone therapy, hormones, HRT, intersex, Jim Sinclair, legislation, lifestyle, medical care for minors, parental rights, patient rights, Performance All The Way Down, poetry, puberty blockers, restricting medical care, Richard Prum, Ross Gay, sex determination, sexuality, SRY, Supreme Court, teaching in jail, teaching poetry in jail, Tennessee, testosterone, Thank You, transgender, transphobic legislation, urgency of medical care, wellness
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On reading Bruce Weigl’s “Song of Napalm” in jail.
People recovering through PTSD often need our quiet understanding in the moments when their stories seem to fail them.
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Reading Jack Gilbert’s ‘In Dispraise of Poetry’ in jail.
We can be haunted by our differences, our gifts. At times, we haunt others for theirs.
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On ‘Chain-Gang All-Stars.’
I went to the jail last Sunday afternoon to host our weekly poetry class. A corrections officer escorted me to the fourth floor and then down a hallway toward the room that they let me use for classes. The officer and I had briefly chatted in the elevator, but after we reached the fourth floor,…
Adjei-Brenyah, book review, Chain Gang All Stars, Chain Gang All Stars review, Correction, crime, Department of Corrections, incarceration, isolation, jail, Juan Mendez, mass incarceration, mental health, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, poetry, prison, public safety, safety, seg, segregation, solitary, solitary confinement, teaching in jail, torture, Where Life Is Precious Life Is Precious
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On bad penis puns.
Modern English is built on a foundation of The King James Bible and William Shakespeare – the former, plagiarized from a person we burned on the stake for his efforts; the latter, Lord Regent of Bad Penis Puns, as though his very name compelled him: Willy-I-Am Shake-Spear, Billy Wagcock, old I am a dick now…
bad puns, Barbara Hamby, capon, Christopher Logue, competition, consensual nonmonogamy, cooperation, education, Emily Wilson, Entitled, etymology, Eugenia Cheng, fornicate, gender, history of English, humor, hysteria, James Joyce, jealousy, Joyce, Kate Manne, Mansplaining, Mathematician's Manifesto for Rethinking Gender, men, mythology, OED, Oxford English Dictionary, patriarchy, Penelope's Lament, penis, penis puns, poetry, polyamorous, polyamory, puns, scortatory, sex, sexuality, Shakespeare, slang, teaching, Telemachus, The Iliad, The Odyssey, Ulysses, vagina, vulgar slang, War Music, women, X+Y
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On dealing.
For deftly navigating the vagaries of supply and demand, M.B.A. students are praised. Dealers wind up in jail.
A.E. Stalling, Art Monster, Art Monster poem, Bloomington, college town, college town drugs, dealing, dope, dope dealing, drones, drug crimes, drug deal gone wrong, drug dealing, drug laws, drug-related crimes, gentrification, heroin, housing policy, Indiana University, jail poetry, jail poetry workshop, low-income housing, manslaughter, marijuana, meth, methamphetamine, minotaur, minotaur poem, murder, OD, overdose, paranoia, poetry, poetry analysis, police, police policy, policing, pot, Stalling, teaching in jail, teaching poetry, teaching poetry in jail, Vigilante, War on Drugs
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On smuggling.
Prison admins must think it’s risky to accept books. But if prisons weren’t horrible, we wouldn’t have to send them.
abolition, abolitionism, biochemistry, biomedical research, book bans, book restrictions, books to prisoners, gang murder, gang violence, mailing plasmids, mass incarceration, Midwest Pages to Prisoners, Pages to Prisoners, poetry, prison abolition, prison abolitionism, prison book ban, prison book bans, prison book programs, prison gangs, prison mail policy, prison violence, research, research practices, scientific research, shipping plasmids, smuggling, smuggling DNA in magazines, Stanford, Stanford biochemistry, Sympathy for the Devil, violence in prison
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On Constantine Cavafy’s ‘Body, Remember,’ and the mutability of memory.
Would your life be better if you mistakenly believed in past triumph?
addiction, alcoholism, Aliki Barnstone, assault, beer, Body Remember, Boltzmann brain, brain, Brett Kavanaugh, CBT, cognition, cognitive behavioral therapy, consciousness, Constantine Cavafy, drinking problem, episodic memory, Exhalation, failed seduction, Flirtation, incarceration, jail poetry, jail poetry workshop, Kavanaugh, Last Gods, mass incarceration, memory, misremembrance, missed connections, mutability of memory, opiate abuse, opiates, poetry, problem drinking, recovery, recovery from addiction, Remember Body, risque poetry, seduction, sexual aggression, sexual assault, sexy poetry, sultry poetry, Supreme Court, teaching in jail, Ted Chiang, Truth of Fact Truth of Feeling, violative assault
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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 power and species.
In comics, the people who believe their power gives them the right to dominate others are villains. And yet, consider the way we treat the other animals who share our planet …
All-Star Superman, animal PTSD, animal welfare, comics, DC comics, do animals feel trauma, do animals get PTSD, dominion, ethics, Grant Morrison, Harry Harlow, HIV vaccine, HIV vaccine research, how we treat other animals, hurricane, Hurricane Maria, John-Michael Bloomquist, lab animals, laboratory animals, Luke Dittrich, macaque, macaque colony, macaque PTSD, macaques, Miss Able, monkey colony, monkey PTSD, Patient H.M., Pit of Despair, poetry, post traumatic stress disorder, power, primate research, psychological harm, psychological research, psychology, psychology research, PTSD, Puerto Rican macaque colony, Rape Rack, research animals, research colony, research ethics, research macaques, research monkeys, scientific ethics, St. Francis Visits the Research Macaques of Modern Science, Superheroes, Superman, Superman versus The Hulk, Supervillains, The Hulk, trauma, vegan, vegan comic books, vegan comics, vegan superhero, vegan superheroes, veganism, vegetarian, vegetarian comic books, vegetarian comics, vegetarian superhero, vegetarian superheroes, Villains
Frank Brown Cloud 