Category: The Beat Without

-Gabe, San Quentin State Prison Take a breath. It’s ten fourteen PM and the hamster in my head, is running on his wheel like it’s fuel injected. I’m trying to sleep, but the roaring of my thoughts, regrets and memories crash against my eyelids, as if an ocean’s wave, barely contained. It’s knocking.  This has been a constant for me. At least my memories will never leave. This was my way of thinking for a long time, and it still tries to creep back in the dark of night. I started to challenge those thoughts. “Are you helping me right

-Adrian, San Quentin State Prison Thank you for believing in me. I’m going to take another year off. So, pray for me! Hopefully, in a year from now I’ll be writing from the streets but it’s gonna take some hard work.  I’m scheduling a court date asking them to let me go and trying to go on San Francisco’s MCRP program in August. If it is the Lord’s will then the saga will continue out there! I really feel like you editors changed my life. I now live as if you’re watching me because I care about your opinion.  Thank

-Fiji, San Quentin State Prison I sat there and stared at the crumpled piece of paper laying on the sidewalk. I couldn’t help but wonder how many people walked by that discarded piece of paper without even noticing that not even a foot away sits a trash can. After some time sitting there, I stood up and did something that anybody could have done, but up until then, nobody chose to do. A thought enters my mind. I was like a crumpled piece of paper before, a problem child, a headache, troublemaker, people looking at me like a crumpled paper.

-Phillip, San Quentin State Prison I find it funny in a way, when I think about who takes care of me all these years in prison, which is going on fourteen years now. So, there was a time when I first came to prison, I had this expectation that my people in the free world were going to put money on my books and send me packages.  At the same time, I wasn’t doing anything for myself. As you can imagine I became a burden to my family, and the money and packages dried up fast. I had to figure

-Tariq, Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, CA Dedicated To Dave InocencioOut of the loop in 2025Back in the loop in 2026I heard Dave Inocencio is no longer aliveThinking to myself, “What the hell did I miss?”Moving from one prison building to anotherI found an old letter from DaveThinking to myself I’ll write to my brotherNot knowing he was in his graveDeeply saddenedI read my newly published poems in The BeatHappy for being published but bittersweetAnother new issue, delivered to meI saw behind Dave’s name, RIPWhich made me sadDeeply saddenedIt’s dedicated to Dave InocencioIt was 2010, when you gave me

-Sugar Bear, San Quentin State Prison Life is too short to sweat the small stuff. I focus on positivity. We all make mistakes, and I am no one to judge anyone. I want to say what Rodney King says, “Can we all just get along!” Let’s change negative thoughts with God’s thoughts. Inspire, love, pray and lift someone. you don’t know what they can be going through. A smile is infectious.

-Noava How do you go from where you are at, to where you want to be? I had to work very hard to get to where I am today. It takes a lot of enthusiasm and hard work. I have goals and plans.  Number one key is taking care of self, first. I dream big and I manifest my freedom every day. I sweat hard and I am dedicated to be making amends by training dogs to help people in need who have disabilities.  I work hard every day, and I set my dreams ahead of me one day at

-Jose, San Quentin State, CA My message to all addicts is have hope. Have faith in your higher power God or whoever is your motivation to change. You have to know that you could not change by your own understanding. I know because I did try many times to let my addictions go, but I couldn’t do it on my own.  I needed God to help me come out of the hole that I was in. I tried it all, using different drugs, mixing, leaving one for the other and I still couldn’t. I remember going to groups of NA,

-Paul, Vacaville, CA The most important relationship is with yourself. That relationship defines all other relationships that you interact with in your life. The relationship with yourself is based upon your beliefs, values about yourself and the world.  This brings you to a naughty place known as your world views, which come from your environment. Your environment takes into account your parents, teachers, and the culture. How you communicate with yourself daily empowers you to project positivity back to you from other people and situations, in respect to the relationship that you have with yourself.  You cannot trust your emotions

-Anthony, Pine Knot, KY I don’t really like to talk about confidence because it has the tendency to rub people the wrong way as if I’m demonstrating exaggerated confidence. Although I am reluctant to do so, I’m about to bestow an element of surprise upon your young life that I hope inspires you to be the one to improve reality and save humanity. I was young when I began serving my 737 month sentence and I felt hopeless being shuttled from jail to jail prior to prison facility designation. The light at the end of the tunnel seemed like a