To improve public safety by restoring former offenders to productive roles in society through training, counseling and education programs that remove the barriers to meaningful employment and that teach skills for today's workforce.
Poetry
Cellsong
Night Music Slanted
Light strike the cave of sleep. I alone
tread the red circle
and twist the space with speech
Come now, etheridge, don’t
be a savior; take your words and scrape
the sky, shake rain
on the desert, sprinkle
salt on the tail
of a girl,
can there anything
good come out of
prison
Etheridge Knight Etheridge
Knight was born in Corinth, Mississippi in 1931. After dropping out of high school and seeing active duty in Korea, he was arrested for robbery and sentenced to serve eight years in the Indiana State Prison. During his incarceration he began writing poetry.
Poetry is used throughout our training to encourage participants to sort out their life experiences and to elevate the group to higher ideals. Poetry also provides a small problem for participants to solve each day as the group discusses what they mean and work to understand the reality that is being articulated.
We select poems from authors such as Ethridge Knight, William Wantling, Charles Bukowski, Mary Evans, Edward Brathwaite, and Nikki Giovanni who provide us with material that is both accessible to our participants and relevant to our purpose. Understanding poetry for us does not depend upon formal skills, but upon a willingness to engage in self-exploration and self-expression.
