This is the first poem that I wrote and finished after release from prison. It discusses those first sensations – that which free citizens take for granted – that I experienced in the relatively privileged community where I live. This will now be the start of a campaign to raise awareness about the problems in the UK prison system about which I and my family and friends were not aware until actually experiencing them. It is impossible to really understand the trauma suffered and the damage done to so many human beings without direct experience but, if we care about social justice, it is worth making an effort. Please subscribe to this channel if you sympathise, so that we can create some momentum. Who knows, with your support, someone in a position of power might actually listen!
Fair Freedom Found
Liberation; home at last
The fumes the feathers, the flora and fauna
Absent those senses in recent past
Now mystery awaits round every corner
People on their way, to who knows where
The planes that roar above, in silent air
Now a comforting sound!
Fair Freedom Found
No screaming, no boom-box intrusion
Nor banging on mighty, metal doors
Alone, at peace, amid nature’s seclusion
No linoleum landings, nor filthy floors
No signs of others’ secretions
Though smelt in the woods, those dogs’ excretions
Let these animals abound!
Fair Freedom Found
These “good mornings” are pleasant greetings
Not of staff or inmates met everyday
Real happenchance meetings
Of early risers on a well-worn way
I can almost walk where and when I desire
Through familiar smells of farm-waste fire
Footpaths all around!
Fair Freedom found
Commuters scurrying to the station
And the trains that take them on to the city
Monotony for them is, for me, revelation
Even they who were ugly may now seem pretty
I walked these streets some years before
Not knowing that they would mean so much more
Open spaces astound!
Fair Freedom Found
To walk, alone, surrounded by reality
That which every human should treasure
To greet each other without formality
A sense of purpose in the mere gift of pleasure
Inside we strived for any human dignity
Outside we are all of relative nobility
Let me kiss the ground
Where Fair Freedom is Found
I used to rise as early as I could
To find the peace to think, read or write
I ordered my life as any inmate should
To cope with deprivation, the daily fight
Nothing of value would we abandon
Outside this routine seems almost random
They lead to nowhere, these paths I now pound
Except, to that place where Fair Freedom is Found