Articles

Right now, our country faces a crisis of mass incarceration. With five percent of the world’s population, we have twenty-five percent of the world’s incarcerated people.  The majority of these are held not in the federal prison system but in local facilities—jails.

I am honored and humbled to introduce the following poems written in response to my poem “I’ve Been Known.” First published almost twenty years ago in a wonderful (but now defunct) magazine called Margie, my poem was picked up by Billy Collins for his project Poetry 180: A Poem a Day for American High Schools,

by Allison   I have been known to be young and naive; To wipe my nose on my sleeve; To beg and plead when I should just leave;  To doubt when I should believe; To say no when I mean yes please; To walk away when I should be on my knees; But as I …

I’ve been known to speak up and out of turn.
I’ve been known to heal from a burn.
I’ve discovered letting myself off the hook is how I learn.

I’ve been known
as a piece of shit.
Now I’m known
to pay the rent.

I’ve been known to lash out, freak out, to hide how I feel.
I’ve been known to use things to numb my yesterdays,
To have strength, but allow words to break me,

to lie
to cheat
to steal
to hurt

I’ve been known
to overindulge
to try too late
to get lucky

I’ve been known to lie, to fib, to not tell all, to tell half-truths.  I’ve been known to do all these things to not hurt someone’s feelings, to keep a person

I’ve been known to fight now and ask questions later.
I’ve been known to put others down when I’m not that higher than them.
To forgive but never forget.