teaching poetry in jail
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On the water-fueled car.
Sometimes our fear of spooky, covert conspiracies makes us overlook the people blatantly conspiring to destroy us.
Ashes, automobiles, Berenstain Bears, Berenstain Bears conspiracy, Berenstein Bears, brancing points, carbon, carbon economy, carbon emissions, carbon tax, chemistry, choice of universe, climate change, cold fusion, combustion, comic, common mistakes, conspiracy, conspiracy theories, conspiracy theory, consumerism, decoherence, energy conversion, Evil Dave versus Regular Dave, false memory, fuel, fuel efficiency, gasoline, global warming, Hugh Everett, jail, Mandela Effect, mass incarceration, octane, oil companies, Old Hat New Hate, pollution, power, prison, prophecy, quantum collapse, quantum mechanics, reaction diagrams, Second Law of Thermodynamics jail poetry, teaching in jail, teaching poetry in jail, thermodynamics, water cars, water-fueled car, wavefunction, webcomic
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On reading poems from Donika Kelly’s ‘Bestiary’ in jail.
Will poems about lovelorn bowerbirds help men in jail for domestic violence? At least the words are beautiful.
abuse, abusive relationships, affirmative consent, AI, art, assault, Bestiary, Bower, bowerbird, Bruce Weigl, child abuse, Child Beater, consent, CPS, creation, DCS, desire, domestic, domestic violence, Donika Kelly, drinking, Heartbreak, incarceration, jail poetry, Kavanaugh, kindness, love, love poems, mass incarceration, mouse, objectification, poems, poetry, pornography, pre-emptive excuses, relationships, respect, romance, sex education, sexual assault, sexuality, teaching in jail, teaching poetry in jail, That Cat, The Impossible, trauma, violence, What Gay Porn Has Done for Me, writing, writing poetry
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On neural plasticity.
What would it take to convince yourself that you are worthy of love?
addiction, biofeedback, brain development, brain growth, CBT, chemical dependence, cocaine, cognitive behavioral therapy, counseling, criminal justice, day by day, depression, dopamine, dopamine receptor levels, dopamine receptors, drug addiction, drug counseling, drug use, e-meter, free will, getting over addiction, happiness, healing, incarceration, jail, lie detector test, mass incarceration, mental health, methamphetamine, mind control, neural development, neural plasticity, plasticity, poetry, poetry class, polygraph, redemption, rehab, rehabilitation, reshaping thought, Scientology, sobriety, substance abuse, teaching in jail, teaching poetry in jail, therapy
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On nature.
Nature heals, but we yank the world away from people in need.
boaters, boats, cell block, concrete, contraband, domestic violence, drug use, evolution, finding a way to survive, forest bathing, Greazy, Grow, growing a tree in jail, heroin, human evolution, human instincts, incarceration, instincts, instinctual behaviors, instinctual urges, jail block, jail boats, jail poetry, life inside jail, mass incarceration, medicine, methamphetamine, nature, nature bathing, nature walks, opiates, our man, Our Man Grows an Orange Tree, plants, poem, poetry, prison poetry, stress, teaching poetry, teaching poetry in jail, withdrawal
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On Tara Westover’s “Educated.”
How can you learn to trust in a world where your beloved family member’s visage might conceal a monster?
alternate histories, alternate history, apocalypse prepping, behavioral change, Charles Reznikoff, cocaine, coke, cultural knowledge, drugs, Educated, eels, endangered eels, etymology, gaslighting, government aid, Hillbilly Elegy, history, Holocaust, Hulk smash, J.D. Vance, jail poetry, Jekyll and Hyde, memory, paranoia, perception, poetry class, poverty, preppers, prison poetry, SNAP, storytelling, Tara Westover, teaching poetry, teaching poetry in jail, The Hulk, the mutability of memory, traumatic brain injury
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On drinking.
“The only thing I’m scared of is that I’m gonna drink again and my daughter won’t let me see my grandkid.”
addiction, alcohol, alcoholism, apology, beer, booze, Dave Gibson Makes His Way Down, Dave Johnson, domestic violence, drinking, drugs, fear, forgiveness, jail poetry, penitence, poem, poems, poetry, poetry in jail, prison poetry, Raymond Carver, repentence, teaching poetry, teaching poetry in jail, Where Water Comes Together with Other Water, Woolworth’s 1954
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On artificial intelligence and solitary confinement.
Just like us, an AI will sometimes make mistakes. But at least we can offer explanations. An algorithm might inscrutably destroy somebody’s life.
administrative detention, AI, algorithm, Anscombe, artificial intelligence, automated image analysis, babies, California, color, confirmation bias, corrections, criminal justice, Department of Corrections, gang, gang crime, Google Researchers Are Learning How Machines, how we learn language, identifying gang activity, image analysis, In a Dark Dark Room, Indiana Prisoners’ Writing Workshop, isolation, jail poetry, language, Learn, learning to speak, learning to talk, linguistics, lockdown, Ludwig Wittgenstein, neural networks, newborns, paradox, Philosophical Investigations, philosophy, poetry, Pouncho, prison poetry, shape, SHU, solitary, solitary confinement, solitary watch, teaching poetry in jail, the philosophy of language, Wittgenstein
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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
Frank Brown Cloud 