Who Will Hold Me?

November 23, 2017: On this Day in America, called “Thanksgiving” by Some, “Day of Mourning” by Others, there are many individuals & families, left to be forgotten. They are detained not by bars, barbed wire, or cells…they are detained in thought and deed by (members of) Government that place Personal & Political GREED over the needs of the People & the Environment they have been delegated to serve. Puerto Rico & The Virgin Islands still devastated by the past Hurricane season comes to mind. The dismantling of both Civil & Human Rights for individuals with “minority status” comes to mind. The encouragement to propagate Lies, Hate, and Apathy to proliferate Fear, Depression, & Hopelessness is not the “Will of the People“, it is sadly the “Will of the Ignorant” who indeed will one day be alone screaming out, “Who Will Hold Me“!

Although it is misguided to say “All You Need is Love” to heal the ills of the World that are upon us, most certainly Love, Compassion, Respect & Empathy in both thought & deed directed at all who suffer can indeed lessen the burden ♥ 

April 29, 2016: Criminal Justice Reform / Prison Reform is a sham if it does NOT address the constant and continual violations of Constitutional/Legal, Civil, Human (and Treaty where applicable) Rights of each of its Prisoners regardless of Innocence or Guilt. Torture in America exists in Prisons and Detainment Centers whether it’s due to lack of due process of law, inadequate living conditions, over-use of restricted isolation and other areas where the rule is to dehumanize and punish through lack of concern and compassion. The economics of the Prison System carries more worth than the bodies of the men, women and children who are enslaved. I refer you to the United States Constitution, the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the Geneva Convention. I’m so sorry Kenny♥ I wish I could do more. 

March 2016: There has been nothing done thus far to ease suffering of Prison Inmates no matter what form of Prison they reside in; Local, State, or Federal. Both Leonard Peltier a Federal Inmate & Mumia Abu-Jamal a State Inmate in Pennsylvania are currently suffering from Medical Neglect & Indifference. By far they are not alone as many others suffer as well. In Colorado a Prison was reported as using excessive amounts of Tear Gas during an incident that lead to an extended Lock-down; the gas went thru the ventilation system and affected ALL Inmates including those NOT responsible for the Lock-down; they had to have Emergency Medical Care due to severe Breathing problems.

This poem was written in 2011 when federal prisoner Leonard Peltier was in “The Hole” in USP Lewisberg (he now resides at USP Coleman 1). It is dedicated to ALL Prisoners who are or have ever spent time in Solitary Confinement, Restrictive Isolation, Ad Seg, “The Hole” or whatever words are used for this form of torture. It is especially dedicated to (my) Kenny♥…who knows, understands, & advocates.

It is said that each lifeform comes into this world alone in body and goes out the same. But no lifeform save a few are beings of solitude. From the cellular level, they form clusters, they form families, they form community. When one chooses aloneness they are indeed still linked to others who are alone…and their aloneness is choice. Eventually they will need the company of another being. Unfortunately there are those among us who are alone without choice…forced by predator, or enemy, or poverty, or sickness, or apathy, or ignorance, or fear. In deep darkness of the night those who have others in their lives still can feel this aloneness; it cleaves to eachone as a panic clutching at the heart and spirit…screaming to the Universe…

Who Will Hold Me?

From the shell, the pod, the egg, the womb…the Mother releases…shelter no more.

Nestled in the web, the tree, the cave, the hut, the cell, the 74 chevy …hold on to something…grasping for a touch.

Alone, Alone, Alone…..where is the breath, the heartbeat, the hum, the flesh….any being will do.

Who Will Hold Me?

Who Will Hold Me me as I cry in the morn, as I long in the night, as I suffer in pain, as I feel the ages upon me?

Who Will Hold Me me as I sing my praises to the divine, as I laugh with the droplets of rain, as I breathe in the essence of life?

Who Will Hold Me me as I toil for food diving deep in waters, racing across plains, clawing in dirt, soaring on the winds?

Who Will Hold Me me as I commit the glory or the sins?

My Spirit, My Soul, My Inner Being….pure and true take me where I need to be, take me where I need to heed.

My Spirit, My Soul, My Inner Being….converse with ancestors, light, love, all who are connected as one, as kindred….yet…..

Who Will Hold Me?

My arms, my limbs, my wings, my fins, my branches…I can not wrap them around myself.

Who Will Hold Me me when I have the need to feel another life near mine, when I have the need to know in my bones that a gentle touch, a soft kiss, a tender whisper will help to heal the wholeness of my being?

Have Mercy….. Who Will Hold Me?

7/31/11; BFW