Reginald Dwayne Betts

“This is the brick & mortar of the America
that murdered Tamir & may stalk the laughter

in my backseat. I am a father driving
his Black sons to school & the death
of a Black boy rides shotgun & this
could be a funeral procession. The Death
a silent thing in the air, unmentioned-
because mentioning death invites taboo...”

“Lost in what's gone. Reinventing myself with lies:
I walk these streets, ruined by what I hide.
Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine.

Did a stretch in prison to be show more released to a cell.
Returned to freedom penned by Orwell.
My noon temptation is now the Metro's third rail.

In my wallet, I carry around a daguerrotype,
A mugshot, no smiles, my name a tithe.
What must I pay for being this stereotype?”

^These 2 excerpts, are from [Felon: Poems]. It is a beautiful but also hard-hitting collection, directing an insightful spotlight on the Black experience in America today. It may end up being the best collection I have read this year. Warbling loud and clear... show less

When it’s difficult for me to focus, I tend to read poetry. This short collection surprisingly filled an empathetic void in me I didn’t know I had. Its focus on the emotional experience and effects of incarceration is both eerily timely and educational without being didactic. I mean, I know the stats. I’ve seen Ava Duvernay’s excellent documentary 13th. But I’ve never thought deeply on the heart of someone who has been incarcerated. I know incarceration marks a person indelibly. I show more had some dim idea of how. But this book made me think of what those marks look like in daily living, and what it takes to heal, or to try to.

(For a more detailed review, check out my website.) show less

I guess I just had a hard time with this. Apart from the fact that he did not commit a victimless crime, I just didn't love the poetry itself. I was hoping the poet would play with form a bit more? Obviously the redacted poems are super cool in their format but, besides this, they all look quite similar and I just got a bit bored.

I was particularly stunned by "Night" in which, if I've read correctly, we are being told that the speaker has stalked and physically abused "his woman" and still, show more somehow, we are meant to empathize with the fact that she is "a threat to the freedom [he] imagined she gave". If I am misinterpreting this relationship and poem, please let me know. I would HOPE and prefer that I am wrong or misread.

As for the whole "victimless crime" thing I mentioned, I just don't think any of these read as if the speaker believes they committed a crime that deserves punishment. I want to make it very clear that I 100% understand a lot of these poems are commenting on the unfair treatment experienced while in prison. "Punishment" does not include being humiliated, abused, and exploited. But I also think there have to be some slices of awareness when you've committed a crime that has hurt someone.

The severity of their environment, though, is fully formed and discusses in such a gut-wrenching way. The moments with the sons are some of the most emotional moments for me. These moments were the most honest. I most "liked" the poems "if absence was the source of silence", "mural for the heart", and "For a bail denied". There is some excellent commentary on the prison system and fatherhood .

Again, I am open to hearing other interpretations of this! Particularly in the poem Night, I'd like to know how others read it, what it really means, what I might have overlooked. show less

More an informal collection of recollections than memoir, this work reads something like a selection of blog entries related to reading and prison, only the very beginning and the very ending standing out as clearly ordered. As such, this comes across as too half-hazard an attempt at broaching questions related to youth in prison and the justice system, falling far short of the clear subtitle for the work: "A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison".

The biggest problem I show more had in reading this, however, wasn't one of organization. It was the question of coming of age. More often than not, the book fails to make prison-life sound like anything more than an extended solitary stay in a library or retreat for reading, violence and injustice (or justice) on the outskirts. Beyond acknowledging that his views are wider because of what he's read, which he may have read in or out of prison, Betts also doesn't seem to (or claim to) mature as a result of his sentence. Reading this work, it's easy to forget that he's guilty of a crime, and while I don't begin to think that the nine years he served were actually deserved (at that length) for the crime he committed, any attentive reader has to at some point wonder: In all those nine years, shouldn't you be able to say why you committed the crime? After those nine years, shouldn't the resulting memoir speak to its supposed subjects of survival, maturity, and justice, moreso than the constant theme of trying to find ways to pass the time?

It's possible that a clearer or more linearly organized narrative could have done Betts' story more justice. As the book stood, though, I didn't feel like the focus of the novel had any weight whatsoever beyond the close focus on Betts' personal experience. Certainly, there was little questioning or discussion of justice or maturation, beyond, again, passing time.

On the whole, this was a disappointing read, and though well-written, probably not something I'd expect anyone to learn something from, or even find truly thought-provoking. Based on the writing and the experiences behind the work, I have to think that Betts would have been better served writing a novel.

Unfortunately, I can't recommend this one. show less