BIRTHDAY NUMBER THREE
BY TRACY SCHLAPP & DANIEL WILSON
We’re celebrating another trip around the sun for our scrappy journal. Thank you for reading week after week — the work is a joy, and it is our pleasure to bring it to you. If you value the work, please consider supporting us further!
Recommendations, reposts, and those little hearts all help drive more readers to the Pony — if you like it, heart it!
Paid subscriptions support our work directly. Consider this, if each of you pledge $5 per month — collectively you support the cost of the entire Eastern Oregon writing program for the year.
HOLD THE PONYXPRESS IN YOUR HANDS
PonyXpress writers are not allowed to access the internet, which is why we publish a journal to distribute inside. We produced a few extra copies for those of you who appreciate holding a book in your hands.
Our editors at Oregon State Penitentiary reviewed all of the work produced last year and selected this collection of poetry, memoir, and essays from the four PonyXpress themes of 2025:
THE NATURAL WORLD IS EVERYWHERE
Consider your relationship with the natural world from prison. How does one commune with nature from a cell? Look for the small resiliencies that come with breath work, the rain on your face during yard. It is an opportunity to lament the loss of running in the woods, surrounded by the scale of Redwood trees, a call to the importance of seeing the night sky.
HOW DO YOU MAKE CEREMONY?
How do you care for yourself: body, mind, spirit? Do you have a self-care routine? Are there rituals or prayers that are part of your life cycle? Do you encounter challenges that make it difficult to keep these rituals? Have you invented new ways to pray in prison?
WHAT DOES FAMILY LOOK LIKE?
Family units shift, they grow, and they are negotiated by the space we inhabit. Who is family to you? Have you replaced your blood kin with a new family? Has family failed you? Does family hold you up?
GRATITUDE ?
When you look, really look. What do you see? People are expected to express gratitude — be grateful to be alive. It is simple. It is complex. And because of this tension, we added the question mark. What do you see when you are thankful. What is missing? What is yet to be seen?
Bridgeworks Oregon provides mentorship for incarcerated writers as they build community inside — crafting their work, supporting one another, and developing their writing voice. Participants include people from Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, Eastern Oregon Correctional Facility in Pendleton, Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville, Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario, and Deer Ridge Correctional Institution in Madras.
Thank you to the Spirit Mountain Community Fund for supporting the publishing. Want a copy? Purchase the journal on the Bridgeworks Oregon website. | TDS & DJW