My first attempt at a poem in several years!

Hello Crispaz community!

 I finally wrote my first attempt at a poem in several years! Though I spend nearly every day facilitating writing processes for others, I rarley create space for me to undertake this same process J  Below is a poem that expresses the one-on-one poetry workshops I carry out in the male youth detention center in a way that prose just can´t capture. Every Tuesday I am blessed with the chance to accompany and learn from the lives of the youth who find themselves locked up in this particular “Rehabilitation” Center.

Tuesdays

Only their plastic kites

manage to escape

the confines of infinity

where their youthful spirits

live trapped in a mud-coated hell

Where I write their words

but not my own

listen to their hearts

but rarely my own

and bathe them in a love

that is not my own.

It comes some days

overflowing

from God

knows where

and others it is all dried up

but mostly

it is always there

at least subtly

soothing sages

who long to be heard

though it can offer

little hope,

just a gaze

that has never seen them

slice or shoot

and thus embraces

their tired eyes in a tenderness

that on a good day

transcends the surrounding filth

in moments that will stay

at least with me

until my mind

quits remembering. 

Jenna Knapp CRISPAZ LTV