South Dakota Inmates

Prose and Cons II South Dakota Inmates

These are poems written by inmate detained by the South Dakota Department of Corrections. There is some good and bad in all of us. If we are remembered only for our good deeds and not our bad deeds, we will be judged as good. If we are remembered for our bad deeds and shortcomings while our good deeds are discounted or dismissed, we will be deemed failures. In the end we are neither all good nor all bad. Reading these poems with a beginners mind will help you get more out of them. Try to experience them as a peek from inside the mind of a stranger without filtering them through what you think the life of a person is or should be. Try to experience these poems from the eyes of the writers looking out rather than you looking in. We tried hard to leave the poems in the voice of the poets. Conventions to grammar, punctuation and spelling were freely sacrificed in order to maintain those voices. By allowing these poets poetic license to express themselves, we allow the reader a unique literary experience.