teaching in jail
-
On bread.
Bread is pretty amazing. But it shouldn’t be anybody’s *only* therapeutic resource.
A Note of Caution Regarding Sentencing Reform, Adam, Attica, Blood in the Water, bread, bread craft, bread sculpture, cardboard piano, chess set made of bread, cooked food, Demetrius Cunningham, depression, deprivation, ear gauge, Eden, Emily Wilson, Eve, expulsion from Eden, Fire, Freedom Riders, Heather Ann Thompson, Hell is a Very Small Place, history of incarceration, Homer, How to Create Madness in Prison, human mortality, incarceration, jail, jail food, jail meals, jail poetry, Laestrygonia, mass incarceration, netsuke, nothing works, Odysseus, poetry, prison, prison education, prison poetry, prison reform, rehab, rehabilitation, Robert Martinson, Solidarity under Close Confinement, suicide, teaching in jail, teaching poetry in jail, Terry Kupers, The Odyssey, therapy, tree of knowledge of good and evil, tree of life, vegan, veganism, vegetarian, wasted ingenuity, What Works, Yahweh, yeast, yeasted bread
-
On light.
“When the lights come on,” T tells me, “that’s when the darkness comes.”
-
On conspiracy theories and Santa Claus.
We told our kid that Santa is just a regular ol’ dungeon master so that hopefully she never thinks the Earth is flat.
alternative facts, autism, Bible, Biblical prophecy, Christmas, conspiracy, conspiracy theories, conspiracy theorists, conspiracy theory, criminal justice, critical thinking, DARE, do vaccines cause autism, drugs, dungeon master Santa, expert opinion, expertise, experts, flat Earth, holidays, humans on the moon, International Space Station, just say no, lying to children, lying to children about Santa Claus, lying to kids about Santa, lying to kids about Santa Claus, magical animal, mall Santa, meat, MMR, moon landing, myths, Nostradamus, parenting, Santa, santa claus, segregation, sex before marriage, sex ed, solitary confinement, teaching in jail, truth, vaccination, vaccines, vegan, vegetarian, ZOG
-
On prayer.
Czeslaw Milosz wrote that “if there is no other shore / We will walk that aerial bridge all the same.”
AA, addiction, Alcoholics Anonymous, Aphrodite, Czeslaw Milosz, deities, God, healing, higher power, impulse control, jail, jail poetry, mythology, myths, naloxone, Narcan, odinism, On Prayer, opiates, opiod epidemic, poetry, prayer, prison, recovery, rehab, rehabilitation, Robert Hass, teaching in jail, Thor, TMS, transcranial magnetic stimulation
-
On sexuality: dolphins.
Where ambiguity isn’t safe, people can be only portions of themselves.
AB, An Aquarium, Aryan Brotherhood, bisexual, CAConrad, criminal justice, desire, dolphin, dolphin sex, dolphins, Enkidu, gay, Gilgamesh, homophobia, homosexuality, human sexuality, identity, internet, jail poetry, Jeffrey Yang, poem, poetry, punishment, Queer, racism, Roman soldiers, samurai, sexual identity, sexuality, sexuality in jail, sexuality in prison, Spencer Reece, teaching in jail, The Road to Emmaus, While Standing in Line for Death, white supremacy
-
On reading Natalie Diaz’s “How to Go to Dinner with a Brother on Drugs” with a room full of men in jail for drugs.
Natalie Diaz wrings beauty from an impossible situation — how much hurt can you bear, trying to help someone who can’t be saved?
addiction, amphetamines, crystal meth, drugs, heroin, How to Go to Dinner with a Brother on Drugs, jail, jail poetry, juvenile detention, meth, methamphetamine, Natalie Diaz, opiate epidemic, overdose, poem, poetry, prison, prison poetry, rehab, relapse, sobriety, street drugs, teaching in jail, War on Drugs, When My Brother Was an Aztec
-
On changing a life.
We can’t be *forced* to change … & sometimes it takes a jolt to realize that we want to.
AA, addiction, Alcoholics Anonymous, Becoming Ms. Burton, Cari Lynn, drug use, drugs, getting sober, halfway houses, heroin, I Felt Your Presence in the Absence of Time, incarceration, jail, jail dormitory, John-Michael Bloomquist, junk, Max E., meth, methamphetamine, Monster House Press, New Leaf, New Leaf New Life, opiates, Poems from the Jail Dorm, poetry, prison poetry, recovery, rehab, release from prison, San Diego 1985, shame, sober, Susan Burton, teaching, teaching in jail
-
On race and our criminal justice system.
In our nation’s criminal justice system, we ignore most of who people are… and focus only on the parts of them we fear.
AI, blow and go, broken communities, Child Beater, education, emotional trauma, going without medication, jail, jail medical care, jail poetry, Marfan syndrome, mass incarceration, medical care in jail, Norman Dubie, persona poetry, poetry, poverty, prison, prison poetry, probation, prosecutorial discretion, racial injustice, rehabilitation, Safe Passage, sentencing inequality, teaching, teaching in jail
Frank Brown Cloud 