Ink from Honey
Poetry can help incarcerated authors to reclaim the story of their life.
Throughout the month of April, Inquest will publish new poetry by a group of incarcerated men in Massachusetts, all of whom work under the banner Ink from Honey, which its founder describes as a collective of “grassroots poets writing the evolution of redemption.”
—April 2024
Work in this series:
The Names They Call Us
“I applaud, your / Frankenstein’s monster, forevermore.”
Prisoner of Poetry
“What does it mean to be an / incarcerated poet?”
“Incarcerated Slavery” & “2 crack a smile”
“The cotton field / is replaced by walls of steel . . . ”
“Don Haitian Monument” & “The Hunters”
“Paralyzed in shock / by slave raid tactics, / my trembling hands on the wall . . .”
Bars behind bars
More from our archives
Reflections
Goodnight Jail
Based on ‘Goodnight Moon’, the 1947 bedtime classic by Margaret Wise Brown.
voices
Poetry from Attica
From Celes Tisdale’s creative writing workshop with Attica Uprising survivors.
Essay
Hip Hop Is My Life
I spit bars on Death Row to preserve the legacy of our people, what’s been done to us, and how we’ve fought back.
Reflections
When You Hear Me, You Hear Us
Work from four poets who were incarcerated as children.
Life Inside
‘We Are Men’
On the 50th anniversary of a flashpoint of the American penal system, the cries of Attica still resonate today.