From JSTOR Daily: Reconciling With Violence Through Poetry @JSTOR_Daily
From JSTOR Daily, Reconciling With Violence Through Poetry, by Morgan Godvin. The essay begins,
“A Prisoner’s Poem” ran in a 1995 issue of The Angolite, out of the Louisiana State Penitentiary commonly known as Angola. Angola was notorious for its bloodiness, so it comes as little surprise this poem is about living surrounded by violence. Fredi Gibson used creative expression to reconcile with the brutality to which he was confined.
“A Prisoner’s Poem” spans half of the first page and most of the next page. JSTOR Daily encourages you to read it in its entirety. Gibson opines on the motives behind the murder, whether or not the victim suspected his death was near, and on the purposefulness of paranoia.
Read the entire essay here.