Prison Poetry & Guild News

Holidays

Every November
The holiday season blows in
On cold winds
Like whispering sadness.
Razor wire topped fences
Sift out holiday joy
Collecting it like tiny sparkling jewels
Held just beyond reach
From the longing hands
Of the discarded.

Each passing year
Becomes more painful
To withstand.
The bitter seasons
Begin to feed
On the abandoned souls
Wasting away inside
This color sapping sadness
Without end.

by Kevin Costa
Bay State Correctional Center in Norfolk
__________________________________

Haikus from Prison

How can you bear the
Short-timers grousing at weeks
When your years are life?

Marks drawn on a wall
Count the calendar days not
Yet known, my someday.

A swollen spring eve,
My red lipstick stings as you
Head home, leaving me.

Rife with regrets and
Disrepute, would that I could
Amputate my mind.

Charlotte Boehm
MCI-Framingham
__________________________________

Compost

…While in Service to this…sentence…
Whereby Self was rendered unfruitful,

I found it necessary for me to soften
The constrictive formulation
By simply, gently, turning the pile (of)
Guilt, pain, regret, and remorse over,
To tender a bit more Spirit
Into the moldering remains of my shattered dreams.

With retooled patience
I lovingly undertook the task to extract
The grey, rocky matter from the heap…
I waited, marking time—days, months, and years…
To sow again,
To rise above all expectations…

Instead of my seeds falling upon infertile …ground,
They found sustaining nourishment
Wrought within enriched Black soil.

The most to do, then
Was all that nature required of Herself:
For me to participate in the regeneration
Of my own destiny.

Ralph Hamm
MCI-Cedar Junction
__________________________________

Time

When I look at the stars, I feel microscopic
Because life is going too fast; I wish I could have time
So I can stop,
So I can enjoy my family’s presence as we find our destiny.
Let our fate be eternal throughout history.
As I start time again, I blend in,
With every other human, but I outshine
Everyone with my passion,
But as long as you keep your heart in the right place,
There’s a promise that you will see
The lime light one day,
Look at me now, I’m taking my time to overcome the
Solid concrete,
Put my heart into poems,
And knock people off their feet,
Just imagine all the great things that
You can do if you choose not to be blind,
If you follow your heart you will remain through time.

by George Whitman
Bay State Correctional Center in Norfolk, MA
__________________________________

Letter to the Editors

Dear NLG,

I would like to thank you on behalf of myself and those around me who do not have a strong voice.  You may never fully know the extent to which you and your dedication has had, and will continue to have, on the lives of “We the people.”  The inclusion of issues that have been trivialized to the detriment of the human condition, and your courage to shed light on “hands-off” topics make what you do more than a life-line.

Thank you truly,
Bruce Frank
MCI Norfolk, P.O. Box 43
Norfolk, MA 02056

______________________________________

NLG Happy Hour
The NLG Massachusetts Chapter’s Happy Hour – for Guild members and non-Guild members – takes place on the 2nd Wednesday of every month, 6:30 – 8:00pm, at Kennedy’s Mid-Town Pub (44 Province St., 2nd Fl., Boston, close to Suffolk Law School), and follows the NLG Presents… event (see below). Next Happy Hour will be on October 13, 2010. Please join us.

NLG Holiday Party
This year the NLG Holiday Party will be on Friday, December 3rd, 5:30 pm. Stern Shapiro Weissberg & Garin (90 Canal St., Boston) once again will open its doors to us and will host us for the evening. In addition to wonderful company of Guild comrades and friends, and excellent food, we will have a very exciting raffle drawing. For more info, please call us at 617-227-7335.

NLG Presents…..

NANCY KOHN

“The Cuban Five: In U.S. Prisons for Opposing Terrorism”

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

5:30 – 6:30 PM

Kennedy’s Midtown, 44 Province St., 2nd Fl., Boston
(next to Suffolk Law School, off Bromfield St.)

Nancy Kohn is a health care activist in Boston. She visited Cuba for the first time in 2006 with a delegation of parents of medical students from the U.S. enrolled at the Latin American Medical School. Nancy was so moved by seeing the advanced state of universal health care in Cuba that she became an activist around breaking the wall of silence, not only surrounding health care in Cuba but also on the case of The Cuban Five. In 2007 she took part in a conference in Holguin, Cuba, about the Cuban Five. She is an active member of the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five.

Massachusetts Bar Foundation Grant for Street Law Clinic
We are pleased to report that the NLG Street Law Clinic project has been awarded a $10,000 grant for the 2010-2011 grant period.  The grant will be used primarily for foreclosure and eviction prevention clinics.

Street Law Clinic Reports
The following Guild members conducted trainings for law students and/or clinics for members of Boston area community organizations and agencies:

May 28: Workers’ Rights clinic at Cambridge Learning Center, by Mark Stern.

June 1: Legal observing at a die-in at the Israeli Consulate in Boston against an attack on the internation humanitarian flotilla, by Neil Berman, Sara DeConde, and Urszula Masny-Latos.

June 6: Legal observing at a protest against AIPAC at Sheraton Boston Hotel, by Urszula Masny-Latos.

July 10: Legal observing at a rally and march against Arizona Governor Jane Brewer and her anti-immigrant policies at Sheraton Boston Hotel, by Sam Berk, Cecilia Candia, Sara DeConde, Carl and Chris Williams.

Articles for Mass Dissent
The November issue of Mass Dissent will focus on religion and politics.
If you are interested in submitting an article, essay, analysis, or art work (cartoons, pictures) related to the topic.
please e-mail the articles to nlgmass-director@igc.org.
** The deadline for articles is October 15.