
Finding Meaning and Healing Through Writing at the Marana Facility
Incarcerated men and women find answers to their struggles through a variety of programs and activities. Some find answers through small-group counseling sessions, others express their feelings through music, and some find healing through writing.
The Arizona State Prison-Marana offers a writing class taught by volunteer Jon Sebba. The group recently put together a booklet titled Minds and Space. The short stories, poems, and other writing reflect the challenges and hopes of some of the men at the facility.
Here are just a few of the writings:
I AM by Alex Erivez
I am Alex
Son of John D.
Who needs Life Vitality Existence
Who loves my two sons, Jesse and Ryan
Who sees all but sees no one
Who hates my past and the life I lived
Who fears my addictions and the places I’ve been
Who dreams of having my own home
With my two boys living the life I never knew
Who has found a new way in a life a higher power, greater than me
He’s helping me find myself in every way
I call God who helps me through my day in every way
resident of LA CA
I am Erivez
Acrostic Poems by Kevin Sisk
P eople of such diversity
R unning around trying to fit in
I ncarcerated by their crimes
S omewhere in that mix is me
Appreciation by Hank Lowe
It is shameful, how we tend
To take for granted those
Who love us most and
On some level, may even resent
Their boundless devotion— Before they are gone.
That I learn from my failings Becoming more like her…
We exist in the mere moment
A mercurial dew drop poised
On the petal of time, shimmering
In the twilight of infinite suns,
Hoping we might value its splendor— Before it is gone.