Elections, legislation, human rights, time spent, truth told, and tolerance can all measure how things went this year. Our heads jerk side to side as we watch this absurdist tennis match. The consequences are real. People’s lives are being devastated. The whiplash is tearing the social fabric of this nation. It’s impossible to imagine our democratic system razed. We are incredulous, as we watch the dismantling of social safety nets that keep our vulnerable citizens cared for and fed. The nation is walking in murky water, toes feeling the way along the slippery bottom, uncertain if we are going to fall into a hole.
When you speak to folks in recovery, they will often talk about needing to hit their rock bottom before rebuilding their lives. And those of you who have been reading the PonyXpress may recognize how the activities of reading, discussing, and writing aid folks inside as they rebuild their sense of self and find a way to prepare for their lives once they release. This week, I have selected writing that reveals the messy bottom and the optimism of revision. It takes courage to not only sit in the stew and reflect but to then make meaning and share those thoughts with the world.
Solitude (Not Today) by AM Morrow
I let the undertow drag me, to the bottom of the lake
A weight tether to my leg, I lie and wait
No attempt to escape, I accept my fate
My mind’s made up, I’ll die this way
Beauty in the Loss by Ray’Eena Giles
In all the things I’ve lost,
There’s a lesson to be learned.
Sometimes to open doors,
There are bridges to be burned.
Bestowed by Austin Clark
It was not until a time of resolute desperation
that I understood that the act of supporting
this crushing weightlessness
was conditioning my mind and my spirit
to withstand life’s inevitable trials
Greener Grass by Jai
Gravel, more gravel than soil
All of it hard scratch
His endless battle waxes and wanes
Freedom expressed through
Grass producing lanes
Childlike Eyes by R. Miranda
To seek the unknown
is to venture not into darkness
Rather into light …
Enlightenment
A World of Woe by Christopher Lewis
“This is our planet,
a place we call home,
We must go on.
We will go on.
Our time is now —
be strong together
For a new beginning.”
Folks in prison come to the PonyXpress workshop, take classes, become peer-to-peer mentors, learn a trade because they are determined to do something with the time they serve. The reset is a deliberate process to forge a new beginning. Danny teases me incessantly about my compulsion to end a conversation with a summary. Yes, I like to tie a string around an unruly set of ideas to hold things in place. It settles my mind — well, until I release the string and resort the bundles. I suppose it is the natural part of my reset process, as evidenced in the weekly wrangling of this writing. And so here I am at the bottom of the post, at the end of 2025 (the year of the dumpster fire) with no tidy summary statement. We feel the political, social, unraveling, the sliding, the losses. I wonder how each of us will approach the inevitable changes ahead. Reset? Rebuild? Reorganize? Imagine new systems and structures?
How will you start over again? | TDS