Poetic Justice Builds on the Dignity of Women in a Tulsa Jail | John Thompson

Poetic Justice Builds on the Dignity of Women in a Tulsa Jail | John Thompson:

Poetic Justice Builds on the Dignity of Women in a Tulsa Jail

Oklahoma imprisons women at double the national rate. About 80 percent of them are locked up for nonviolent offenses. We don't just incarcerate a higher percentage of women than any other state. We're number one in the entire country.

The time is right for Oklahoma and rest of the nation to listen to the women we imprison. A great starting point is Poetic Justice: Poems by Women at David L. Moss Criminal Justice Center. Compiled and edited by Ellen Stackable, Claire Collins, Hanna Al-Jibouri, Maggie Lane and Jenna Jones, the best poetry authored by 400 women yields insights into the full diversity of the human experience. It is merely the lack of space that prompts this post to focus on their themes of motherhood and sexuality.

The collection begins with "Noninstitutionalized," by O.J. She writes:

This morning when I woke
I was perfectly flawed and beautifully scarred

Seeking wisdom from fleeting sages
Sublime and transcending
Though held by man's cages
O.J. ventures into both motherhood and sexuality in "Dearest Olympia." She advises her daughter:

Make all your mistakes loudly. Drink more SoCo. Stay that extra week in London, kiss your girlfriend before they send her away. Take no one's advice but your own. Keep listening to your mother. Bleach that Mohawk platinum. Go to the Police about rape ...

Learn to curse quickly, to walk on your hands, to slow it down some.

Love,
An Incarcerated You
L.J.H. also voices ambiguous feeling about maturity and needing to acknowledge that, "Boy, I'm Old," but her "Ode to Music" emphasizes energy and humor:

I'm shakin my ass, not too much
I'm a lady, not a slut.
M.G.'s "Things I Learned at David L. Moss" previews a world of complexity and Poetic Justice Builds on the Dignity of Women in a Tulsa Jail | John Thompson: