Category: The Beat Without

-Michael leak, St. Louis Correctional Facility, MII’ve seen blood stains that don’t wash awayAnd strung out junkies that score everydayI’ve seen little girls get sold for drugsAnd their momma praised these horrible thugsChasing that blow with a check addicted soulStanding on the corner in the middle of the coldThen those little girls grew up into a gangSo visualize the funerals and the songs they sangI speak from black tears that cry the bluesAnd I write my tomorrow’s before the five o’clock newsBecause everything today will repeat once againSo I write my tragedy with a black penI write my tears upon

-Bishop, San Quentin State Prison, CA What if you could spend time with anyone, who would it be? When you think about answering this what if question, picture the person, put a face to that person, and then see yourself with that person doing whatever it is you enjoyed doing before you became the person who you believe you are today. When you do this, ask yourself what would you be doing with that person if that person was someone who knew that there was something special about you and who genuinely believed in all you could accomplish? Where would

-John Sherwood, Correctional Facility in Pound, VA Young princes and young queens, you are so much more than any struggle you’ve gone through. You are so much more than the difficult circumstance that you are dealing with. You got to believe in yourself. Even when people that are supposed to love and provide for you are unable to help you in the way you may need or desire them to, it doesn’t lessen your worth.  There are many people in society that are trying to help you. Most importantly, you have to help yourself! You got to admit that what

-Phil D, Avenal State Prison in Avenal, CA Just a reminder to you all that things may not look too good right now while looking out the cell window, but I promise you that things will start to change when you look within yourself. My life was a mess for over forty years, till I got arrested.  Everything I ever had was stripped away from me, and I was at rock bottom. So I started to take advantage of all the help I could get, especially the mental health programs. They help me to look back and see why I

-Chris Krych All the time spent cannot be given back to me to relive with my familyAging poorly within a political systemThat stacks the deck against freedomsOnce you are gone, you are gone, but hopefully not forgotten!Another avenue of punishmentLucky to escape with your life, the dead speak(One hundred and three plus so far)!Nobody gets to relive life that has already passed byMothersota makes me cry lakes (ten thousand tears)Angry citizenry pain for lack of political shame!Layered barriers of political fraud, democracy cremated!Eight hundred plus wounded and breathing humansNeed to be made whole againAnother avenue of punishment Is freedom worth having?

-Jeremiah G KelleyBefore I am dead and goneAnd I finally rest in peaceI hope to leave behindAn unforgettable legacyEver since I was a childI wasn’t confident or convincedI would never reach my full potentialLife never made too much senseOne day I picked up a penAnd my hand began to writeI couldn’t believe what I wroteSuddenly so much came to lightI wanted to be successfulBut my mind would have to expandIt was obvious I had a giftThat gift is in my handI had to keep on writingSo, my talent would be exposedAnd as I kept on writingSomething beautiful began to unfoldI

 -Samuel “Shady” Cruz The question has never been “Why?” because the answer has always been there in front of me. I need you to please sit there and hear me out one last time. This will never be spoken again. I just need to let it all out once and for all. Part of my story begins at the age of seven. After my mother abandoned me and left me in the middle of the street all balled up crying, begging for her to come back, she did not! At that moment of my life, Sammy stopped existing. It became

-Freddy “Mr. Positivity” Huante Jr I think about David and coming to The Beat Within. I am keeping up my personal dedication to keep pushing us to help kids in the system; to help them make better decisions and succeed in life. I don’t want to see the youth come down this path and continuing to grow as a human being.  My personal goal in life is to change and it’s all because of someone named David. I was blessed to spend time with David and I am going to continue to keep David’s legacy and what he left behind…

-Johnny Rodriguez Confronting criminal thinking takes an honest person to be real with themselves. Once you understand how to manage denial to get to the core of where it all began, then can you potentially help yourself.  Some individuals do not want anyone to know about their personal issues and it’s perfectly normal and okay. It’s so important that you first protect yourself by learning how to healthily think out what you normalized.  Talk to yourself what you normalized, and write out to yourself what you normalized while growing up even though you do not want to have family members

-Kelon Williams Under the warm sun, as the moisture from the ocean’s breath pacifies the hue of my skin, I swing ever so rhythmically like a Baroque era violin crescendo, of which I have yet to know. Music has been my first love, when love was just a resonating hum from the throat of her that cradles me in her arms. How sweet that melody! That part of me the conductor’s wand ignites instantly; unconsciously, when perceiving the tune, I am in the  the loom of that full scale womb.  I think that even the true voices of the Creator