Why I Write
Anonymous Inmate and Donna Freeman
October 5, 2022
Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.
Plato
Poem by Inmate
Unfriended by society,
My voice has become nothing
More than twitters echoing
off these bare walls,
only to disappear mid-echo.
I think I continue to write
in order to be known,
as if my existence
depended on it,
even when it’s never read
or better left
unsaid.
Response by Donna Freeman
To prove we can travel
beyond our internal prisons
our insecurities
locked cells of inadequacies.
We all yearn to break
self-made barriers
our brains have created
imprisoning our souls.
Form gives us freedom
hope for a future.
Words are the key
to unlock our prison’s door.
Note by Donna Freeman: A poetry group I belong to ran a voluntary workshop for prison inmates. Its purpose was to give them a chance to learn about poetry as well as to learn how poetry can be used as a powerful expression of their own feelings and thoughts.
As part of that experience, prisoners were asked to write a poem in response to the quote from Plato above and to explain why they write. Then members of my poetry group, myself included, were each given one prisoner’s poem to which to respond to the same question," Why I Write.”
Above is the prisoner’s poem I was given followed by my response.
Donna Freeman started writing poetry at age twelve. Her poetry appears in Wilderness House Literary Review, Blue Lake Review, and Ocean State Poets Anthology: Giving Voice. Donna's poems were selected for RI Public's Radio "Virtual Gallery" as well as ekphrastic shows at Imago and Wickford Art Galleries.
