From Student to Teacher: The Perspective of a Prison Poet

I realized early in my prison journey that we were all students because of all the time in a day we had to study and ponder things.  Later on, I came to realize that we were all teachers also.  The teaching part of me did not come into my full consciousness until I learned from Judith Tannenbaum, Diana Henning and others in their writing groups.  I have come to believe you can learn from anyone or thing – a stone, a sparrow, a dog, a cat – silence, pain or a dream.  Everything has something to offer when you are open as the sky.

Long before I found out I was an artist, I gleaned I was a student of life – through books, reflections and observations.  In prison, I have more time in a day than teaching artists and people in general in the free world - time to read, write, study and ponder.  Time moves passed you so fast in the free world.  Physical freedom allows you to bounce from one thing to another, often before you have completed one task.  In prison, after a couple of hours of moving around, if you are not on lockdown, your physical freedom has ended, leaving 20 or more hours in a day.  I believe in using this time to create and to build bridges to the free world.

Hopefully, my students learn that their responsibilities to self, family and friends are to be the best that they can be, even if they never become a published poet or writer.  My hope is that writing about their lives and selves helps them find their true niche.  I don’t think anyone’s true niche is to be incarcerated. Most of my students are eager to learn and grow.  Some have already been writing and longing just for fellowship and a place to hone their skills. 

Through the writing process, each person comes to see himself without lenses, blinders or filters.  I hope my students see themselves in a richer and deeper way.  Often, something their mom or dad said that could have kept them out of jail and that they did not understand before, now appears obvious and as true as sands under their feet and birds in the sky after they stop and reflect.

I stress to my students over and over again that we have more time in a day, even more time in a moment and a year.  I do not accept that a student is too busy to write.  If they are not writing, they chose not to.  Compared to artists in the free world, who often must go to a retreat, a writer’s colony or a cabin somewhere away from everything, writers in prison must go to a spot inside – a sacred or secret place, yet it can be everywhere – a sacred area inside to bring forth the powers and the realness of our creations.

The challenge I faced transitioning from student to teaching artist was to know what I am speaking about, especially when it comes to the technical aspects of creative writings – things you can learn by repetition and practice.  For instance, I had to learn my way around words, diction, language and grammar – sentence and paragraph structure.  I had to learn the language of writing, and make it the foundation and a part of me.  But then I had to let all the structure go to build or to get out of the way of my poetry or my stream of consciousness.

However, there are tools one can use to mold the text – the figurative language, structure and form.  I remember my mentor Judith stressing you must show and not tell in your piece, especially poetry, and the way you do that is by embracing the powers of the figurative language available to you.  I stress that belief to my students because most everything a teaching artist uses is their style and voice to inspire their students.

I learned from both Judith and Diana that if I did not know something or had forgotten something that it is okay to go to a dictionary or reference – any book to clarify and understand a point – to discuss things out with the group until understanding is reached.

I carried that belief and devotion over to my two creative writing classes.  I think it is important to be willing and brave enough to admit you don’t know or forgot something, and to research to find the answers.  Over time, I have learned quickly how and where to go in a book for needed answers.  I have my group help sometimes, handing out dictionaries and reference books.  I make sure the student who asked the question helps in the research.  I explain denotative and connotative meanings.

Just recently, one student asked what the difference is between poetry and prose.  I explained what I have come to know as the difference between poetry and prose, which seemed a bit abstract, so we went to the books.  I could see in the student’s eyes that lights had been turned on.  The desert that was bare now had some seeds watered – some new understanding.

I told my class first that everything that is not poetry is prose; songs, plays, fiction and non-fiction.  We read, discussed and pondered the denotative meanings of both poetry and prose.  For me, I had to say that poetry comes from a sacred, often mysterious place and that one must be able to get out of the way for the flow to happen, so that the poetry can come the way it needs to.  I mentioned that everything can be poetry, but everything is not poetry.  I let my students know that prose can be a real and vibrant art form.

For me, I must stand back out of the way to “feed the fire” – to allow the poetry to come out organically and in one’s own unique voice like an unaltered underground river surfacing where it needs to – the valley, the mountains, the meadows or the desert.
When I was a teacher’s aide, I used the “guided tour” method I learned from Judith, where I encouraged a student to speak in his own way and I write down what the student says.  Sometimes great prose or seeds of poetry came out.

I remember that Diana stressed how to leave some words or phrases out of a poem or prose piece, which allows a reader or listeners to step into a text from many angles and levels.  She taught me how to use understatements, to allow people into a piece.  People must be able to step into your work however they need to.  Diana also introduced me to annotating poems and using examples to back up any statements I made.  Sometimes, I have my classes verbally and on paper annotate poems using the language of writing terms and supporting examples.

My style differs from Judith and Diana in the sense that I have taken what they taught me and often put my own twist on it.  I sometimes combine lessons from both Judith and Diana.  I stress to my students the importance of taking the exercises and keep working on them – the text may turn into something. 

It is a real blessing and honor to facilitate workshops, to be a teaching artist, and to have the respect of my students and also of teaching artists from the free world whom believe in what I do.  There are even some prison officials that believe in the transforming power of the arts.

You must put the personal out there in your work and in your workshops.  It is okay to put yourself out there when being real.  Most likely, you will get the realness back.  It is important to be venerable as an artist to show that the universal is personal.  We all have a common human landscape: inspiring each other in awe.  It is okay for the sun to be just a sun and also a star among billions of other stars.