I went to do a reading in Holloway women's prison the other day.*fetches popcorn*
When I found myself waiting at a bus stop on the wrong side of the road afterwards, I knew the prisoners had made a profound impact.Blimey! Did she get a bang on the head?
Weirdly, I felt I'd been through some massive therapy session; they were the most perceptive and participatory audience I've ever had.Well, they couldn't exactly leave if they didn't like it, could they?
In the prison's library, I read from my memoir about tracing my birth parents. The women were mostly black and Asian. One pretty woman said to me quietly: "Why you not angry with your father, why not expose the man?" Another one replied, as if for me: "Because she doesn't want to feel bitterness in her heart," while a third shouted: "Revenge the muthafucka!"Prison is clearly working for them...
"Can you bring us a love poem if you come again?" someone said. "Yes," I said, as the prison librarian unlocked, locked, unlocked, locked doors and doors and doors between the library and the exit. I'd forgotten my pass so I wasn't allowed out. One of the prisoners in the library could use it to escape, the librarian told me. So somebody was sent back to the library to hunt for my visitor's pass, and eventually I was let out into the nippy November air…Pity they found it, really...
I've picked the women at Holloway prison as my heroes of the year because of their empathy: their understanding of the way lives can revolve around rejection, revenge and redemption when what we really want is love.See what I mean? Just perfect...
No wonder when I first clicked onto this column, a little message read:
Clearly, the mods had to have time to gird their loins for this one....
• This article will be opened to comments at 9am
"Why you not angry with your father, why not expose the man?"
ReplyDeleteCan we sue her for unfair racial stereotyping of foreign modes of speech?
The article is absolutely beyond parody, really.
ReplyDeleteBut if anyone can....
http://www.viz.co.uk/free-comics/classic-strips/luvvie-darling-prison
Now I remember why I don't write poetry any more. Thanks for this.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the reading, a lifer gave me a gift of a box of chocolates and I opened them to share, and some women turned their backs, proudly, and said: "No, lady, they are your chocolates"
ReplyDeleteAhem,she accepts a box of chocolates from Pauline, the Arsenic and Old lace Poisoner, and attempts to hand them round!
The inmates may be illiterates, but they certainly aint stupid.
I bet she just loves the taste & smell of Anchovies too ..
ReplyDeleteWhat a shame that she chose to reveal her choice of heroes (heroines?) in the Grauniad - IMO she would have received a far less rapturous reception had she dictated her piece *at* the bus stop, or within earshot of any of the locals who don't live 'within these walls'...
ReplyDeleteAstonishing. And they cut down good trees to print this rubbish?
ReplyDelete"Can you bring us a love poem if you come again?"
ReplyDeleteOr should that be: next can you bring one that rhymes?
I just want to slap some sense into her silly face
ReplyDelete"Well, they couldn't exactly leave if they didn't like it, could they?" - magnificent.
ReplyDelete"Can we sue her for unfair racial stereotyping of foreign modes of speech?"
ReplyDeleteI think she gets a poet's pass...
"The article is absolutely beyond parody, really.
But if anyone can...."
Heh! 'Are you am oak?'
"Now I remember why I don't write poetry any more. "
I'm not entirely sure she does..!
"Ahem,she accepts a box of chocolates from Pauline, the Arsenic and Old lace Poisoner, and attempts to hand them round!
The inmates may be illiterates, but they certainly aint stupid."
:D
"Or should that be: next can you bring one that rhymes?"
A lot of modern poetry doesn't. Mind you, I expect the graffiti in the ladies always does!