& they rename you kite, as if a word can make wings.

Reginald Dwayne Betts, “Ode to a Kite” from Shahid Reads His Own Palm

“A Brief History Lesson Inside a Filipino’s Lament”

I come from the most precious pearl born of the sun’s ascent from the east I come from color: the green rice fields that turn brown in the summers, the blue sky, the orange sun, the spectrum of wildlife, the red of blood spilled, the gray of pollution, the scuffed flesh of hands washed of blame, the rainbow of bills borrowed and given and stolen I come from land passed around from one set of violent hands to another I come from a culture that forgets, forgives the colonizers and dictators alike; the red-handed shake between oppressors a corrupted sanduguan, the once sacred compact by our datu meant to unite as one blood, but now only our blood is spilled while our names are erased I come from traditions woven into the very fabric of our environment I come from an archipelago of warmth, of sunshine and saltwater and sand, of lush forests and trees and fruit and life, of love and hospitality and family and food, where the ones who have little find something to give and the ones with excess always have something to take I come from a history of calamity at the hands of both man and nature’s wrath I come from finding shelter from storms, monsoons, typhoons, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, forces of nature so destructive in their path they leave some with nothing; but even as we wade through floods, brave angry winds, emerge from the rubble and ash— we still manage to smile and wave at the TV crew I come from ruins rebuilt and we keep rebuilding I come from borrowed freedom on borrowed time; from museums where too many salvaged pieces of our past cannot even be claimed as only our own, or at least not without recognizing another’s influence; from feeling like a hypocrite when I cannot express myself fully in my mother tongue—for even now, I write in English I come from the fear of not knowing who this nation will belong to tomorrow I come from wishing I was somewhere else, somewhere better where I did not need to feel the ache of being unable to unlove something no matter how many times you have been disappointed or betrayed— even though I sit on the privilege of having options, a choice to give up while not even experiencing the worst of it Where I come from is not where I want to stay but oh, how I’ll miss it, from afar, when I go

— j.a.

JANUARY 9/31 - Anaphora In his poem “Shahid Reads His Own Palm,” Reginald Dwayne Betts uses anaphora to propel the narrative forward, describing the places that have shaped and haunted him with an incantatory rhythm. Write a poem about your origins that repeats the words, “I come from,” throughout it. Does the repetition conjure any surprising images? How specific can you get? How broad? This prompt is designed by the folks at PW.org. You can read the prompt on their website here and you can read Betts's poem "Shahid Reads His Own Palm" here.

717. Reginald Dwayne Betts

Reginald Dwayne Betts is the author of the poetry collection Felon, available from W.W. Norton & Co.

Betts is a poet, essayist, and national spokesperson for the Campaign for Youth Justice. He writes and lectures about the impact of mass incarceration on American society. His previous books include the poetry collections Bastards of the Reagan Era and Shahid Reads His Own Palm, and a memoir entitled A Question of Freedom. A graduate of Yale Law School, he lives in New Haven, Connecticut.

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Meet our Speaker

A poet, essayist and national spokesperson for the Campaign for Youth Justice, Reginald Dwayne Betts writes and lectures about the impact of mass incarceration on American society. He is the author of two previous collections of poetry, Bastards of the Reagan Era and Shahid Reads His Own Palm, as well as a memoir, A Question of Freedom. A graduate of Yale Law School, he lives in New Haven, Connecticut, with his wife and their two sons.

#CMLost with Reginald Dwayne Betts will be on November 22nd at Sixth & I. Register on Monday November 18 at 10:30AM.

Reginald Dwayne Betts is an award-winning author and the national spokesperson for Campaign for Youth Justice. His books (including Bastards of the Reagan Era and Shahid Reads His Own Palm) and lectures center on the impact of mass incarceration on American society. His award-winning memoir, A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison, is the story of his 16-year-old self sentenced to 9 years in the worst prisons in Virginia, where horrible conditions and constant violence threatened to break his humanity. Instead, Betts used the time to turn himself into a poet, a scholar, and an advocate for the reform of the criminal justice system.

Currently Reading

 Shahid Reads His Own Palm

Personally, there are very few collections of poems which I enjoy. One such collection is Shahid Reads His Own Palm, a collection of poems written by Reginald Dwayne Betts. This highly acclaimed collection received the 2009 Beatrice Hawley Award, and Betts was awarded the Holden Fellowship from the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers, as well as a host of other awards for his poetry. The collection of poems reads almost like a novel: there is a story to be told and experiences to be explained. In the case of Shahid Reads His Own Palm, the poems were written while Betts was incarcerated, and they tell of his experiences behind bars.

Many of the poems in the collection are titled Ghazal, and are written in Ghazal form: an Arabic poetic form written in rhyming couplets using equal meters for all the lines. The introductory Ghazal reads:

            Who knows the blues of life in prison?

            A man handcuffed to life in prison.

              They know those cells plait his hair with fear -

            will it make him a wife in prison?

              Shahid’d time far outweighs his secret.

            So what he has a knife in prison.

                                                            (Betts, 3)

This poetic form is new to me, and I found it to be an amazing way of reflecting the rigid structure of daily life in prison. Betts is able to take prison life and translate it into poetry. What is most fascinating about this is the juxtaposition between poetry as a form and the hectic fearful life of prison. I am used to reading poetry about love or revolution. Betts poetry, while dark and serious, is a breath of fresh air for me.

All of the poems are descriptive of life in prison, both in the sense of passing the time in prison and spending the rest of your life there. There is a sense of hopelessness, and an anxiety to find solace or to escape from this world. But, as Betts puts it,

            Prison is the sinner’s bouquet, house of shredded & torn

                        Dear John letters, upended grave of names, moon

                        Black kiss of a pistol’s flat side, time blueborn

& threaded into a curse, Lazarus of hustlers, the picayune

Spinning into beatdowns; breath of a thief stifled

            By fluorescent lights, a system of 40 blocks,...

Betts does an exceptional job of translating prison life into poetry. Prison terms, such as kite and shank, are peppered throughout. I was attracted to this collection because of the way the personal side of our prison system is captured in verse. There is the desire to figure out one’s future within the prison, but there is also the discouraging environment to dampen such desires. There is the need to seek peace within religion and poetry, and Betts expresses this in every poem. There is a frankness and bluntness within Betts poetry which allows you to feel that anxiety he felt, to see what he saw, and to feel that desperation for freedom he felt while being locked up all day and night.

--Luis Roca

Image source: http://media.cbsd.com/art/CBSD/high/9781882295814.jpg

Let the rain learn me something about hurt.

Reginald Dwayne Betts, “A Father Talks to Himself” from Shahid Reads His Own Palm

Straight up, the curve of a wrist is beautiful, majestic, another reason to open your heart.

Reginald Dwayne Betts, “An Opened Vein” from Shahid Reads His Own Palm

… death forgiving where / life wouldn’t & all / is echoes and tithing.

Reginald Dwayne Betts, “Gift:” from Shahid Reads His Own Palm

Time / has turned knowledge / trivial: / the population / of the earth, / the weight of the brain, / a moment, a word— / everything at some / point loses meaning.

Reginald Dwayne Betts, “When Mathematics Has Nothing to Do with Counting” from Shahid Reads His Own Palm

He wanted the word opened up with one answer. Where rests the world’s true sorrow? The sky above.

Reginald Dwayne Betts, “Ghazal” from Shahid Reads His Own Palm

Title: Shahid Reads His Own Palm Author: Reginald Dwayne Betts Publication Date: June 2010 Publisher: Alice James Books Genre: poetry

Having read Felon and finding it utterly provocative, I was keen on reading some of his earlier works, and it didn’t let me down. Betts explores prison life and survival in this collection, as well as the troubles and slipperiness of time that one is likely to encounter while in prison. I was really taken to the ghazals that Betts used as touchpoints, capturing a beautiful kind of lyricism that differed from the other poems in this collection (though, I should say that they were just as lyrical, but in a different way).

I appreciate how Betts eloquently captures the problems of incarceration in the United States, while incarcerated, and after being let out (as explored in Felon). He brings such a unique and important voice to the poetry world, and I continue to look forward to his future works.

Some favorites: all the poems titled “Ghazal,” “Near Nightfall,” “The Spanish Word for Solitude,” “Two Nightmares,” “And What if Every Cuss Word Was a Sin,” “Ode to a Kite,” “An Opened Vein,” and “The Truth About Four Leaf Clovers”

Read for the Sealey Challenge.

Content Warning: incarceration, self-harm mention, rape mention, suicide mention